Javagal Srinath sees Ishant Sharma as India's future bowling leader

Javagal Srinath is backing India’s bowlers to perform better in Tests against South Africa

Former Indian fast bowler Javagal Srinath has said that Ishant Sharma is India’s future bowling leader. He believes that Sharma can improve the woeful bowling situation of the current team because there is a lot of cricket left in him.

Ishant, however, will not play the Mohali Test, because he was handed a one-match ban in Sri Lanka, owing to his altercation with Dinesh Chandimal.

Srinath praised the star who was one of the reasons behind India’s historic win against Sri Lanka and felt that he has to be the leader of the pace pack. "India will miss him in Mohali but in the long run, Ishant is your leader of the pack. He should take more responsibility. He has lot of cricket left in him," he said to PTI.

The speedster also thinks India have a "more balanced bowling attack in the longest format" compared to South Africa which will provide them with an edge in the upcoming four-Test series starting 5 November at Mohali.

Bowling was one of the prime reasons for the hosts' downfall in the preceding Twenty20 (T20) and One-Day International (ODI) series but Srinath is backing them to deliver in the Test series.

"With India, it has always been a combination of pace spin (that works for them). Spinners play a big role at home. If not 50-50, I would expect the faster bowlers to take 40 percent of the wickets. If you include the spinners, it is a fairly decent attack and gives India the edge in the Test series," he remarked.

India is probably not going to see a major change for the Tests as far their bowling line-up is concerned. Apart from Sharma, Umesh Yadav and Varun Aaron will be the other seamers and Ravichandran Ashwin is expected to return from injury to lead the spin attack comprising Amit Mishra and comeback man Ravindra Jadeja.

Yadav, who was rested for the last two ODIs, along with Aaron provide much needed venom to the attack, but the 46-year old does not see both of them in the playing eleven.

"You got to see their performance. How they are bowling just before the first match. The two bowlers are very similar in style, so you got to go by the gut feeling of the captain. Whoever performs better at the nets. Somebody who is hitting the lines regularly will probably get the nod," he said.

Coming to India’s most debated bowler, Bhuvneshwar Kumar appears to have lost his magic and ended up leaking 106 runs in 10 overs at the final ODI at Wankhede. Srinath, however, continues to have faith in his abilities.

"I think Bhuvi's strength is his accuracy. He is an intelligent bowler. If not a strike bowler, he can be a good third seamer for the side."

"Dhoni is not part of the Test team so whatever Kohli feels is more important”: Javagal Srinath

Mahendra Singh Dhoni and Virat Kohli represent two different schools of Captaincy. While Dhoni has repeatedly asked for consistency from his faster bowlers, Kohli prefers sheer pace.

"Dhoni is not part of the Test team so whatever Kohli feels is more important. He is your captain. Every captain has his thought process. You should allow them to function. He runs the team, he has the plan and will manage the resources accordingly," the former seamer pointed out.

Since he was backing the Indian bowlers, when asked what his predictions for the Mohali match was, Srinath said, "It all depends on the first two days of the match. It depends on team composition, whether dew is around or not. Ishant not playing can pose issues but I still feel India will have bit of an advantage.”