Weak bowling attack India's biggest World Cup concern: Kirti Azad

Kirti Azad

Kolkata, Jan 24 - Former India cricketer and member of the victorious World Cup team of 1983, Kirti Azad on Saturday said with the present bowling line-up, reigning champions India will suffer badly at the upcoming quadrennial event starting on February 14.

"With the kind of bowling line-up we have, we have to suffer," Azad told the media and audience present at the Kolkata literary meet where he and other panelists discussed the victory at the '83 World Cup.

The 56-year-old, who fondly remembered getting English batsman Ian Botham out in the semi-final in 1983, also added that cricket is a strange game where anything could happen in an instant, thus refraining from predicting India's chances at the tournament.

"It is a funny game, you never know, the bowling will have to come to the forefront and deliver, if it does not then India can be knocked out before the semi-final or even before that," he added.