Jhulan Goswami explains why have India struggled to find good pace-bowling all-rounders since Rumeli Dhar

Indian women’s fast bowler Jhulan Goswami has opined that the domestic cricket culture in the country needs some modifications for them to produce quality pace-bowling all-rounders.

India have struggled to find a good pace bowler who can also contribute with the bat since Rumeli Dhar. The 38-year-old played 78 ODIs and 18 T20Is between 2003 and 2018. She claimed a combined 76 wickets in the white-ball formats. With the bat, she registered six fifties in one-dayers and one in T20Is.

Asked why India are unable to produce players of similar utility, Goswami explained during an interview with The Cricket Monthly:

If you talk about the current pool of India all-rounders, Pooja Vastrakar has been batting well. Shikha [Pandey] has also contributed in patches, but it eventually boils down to two things. The domestic cricket culture needs to change slightly. Things have improved with the BCCI's help, but we could do more. You have to back pacers more and give them more opportunities, on better surfaces, to showcase their skills and hone them. I think pushing them into a corner, where they're forced to consider switching to spin, is not ideal.”

The seasoned pacer added:

“The second thing is, the medium-pacers themselves need to do better preparation pre-season.”

Vastrakar has claimed 25 wickets in 37 limited-overs matches and has one half-century to her name in one-dayers. Pandey has 75 wickets from 55 ODIs and 40 scalps from 56 T20Is. She has registered two half-centuries in the ODI format.

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“Have a very good relationship with your physio and trainer” - Goswami on managing workload at 39

Even at the age of 39, the tall pacer is still going strong. Although she retired from T20Is in 2018, Goswami remains an integral part of the Test and one-day outfit.

On how she has managed her workload for so long, the pacer explained:

“It's trickier than you will ever know (laughs).You have to have a very good relationship with your physio and trainer because their understanding of your body is as important as your own. They play a very important role behind the scenes, and all of my physios, trainers, masseuses have ensured that I was back on the park the next day.”

Goswami added that, at the team level, too, a lot of planning goes into handling a player. She elaborated:

“Once you know what your tour itinerary will be, you have to tailor your training accordingly, which is why pre-series camps are required. It's all of the minds coming together to work out the science behind how your workload and your body need managing - like, if you are scheduling your training and practice sessions to match your body clock to the game times or at least coming close.”

The pace bowler claimed 2/58 in the first ODI against New Zealand and 3/47 in the third match. However, she went wicketless in the final one-dayer of the five-match series, registering figures of 0 for 40.