It’s been like a fairytale, the journey of the Indian team and the World Test Championship Finals. The Indian team was at rank 7 when MS Dhoni left captaincy back in 2014 but it was the young captain Virat Kohli who did the best for the nation and within two years his side was at rank one.
Indian team dominated the Test cricket like never before in the first phase it was all about the spinner and the top order batsmen but later on fast bowlers came in and they did well in England and South Africa where batsmen failed to provide resistance. They came back stronger in Australia and also in the sub-continent conditions Umesh Yadav was the star for the team.
In Australia, the trio of Jasprit Bumrah, Ishant Sharma, and Mohammed Shami dominated and took most wicket by Indian fast bowlers in history. The trio kept on performing along with other fast bowlers in the line-up. In the 2020-21 series against Australia, they were absent in the latter half due to injury but their hands and the dominance in the format had praised many youngsters like Shardul Thakur, Mohammed Siraj, and T Natarajan who were the architect of the Indian victory for the two consecutive times down under.
Mohammed Siraj has been in his supreme form and he had performed both in Australian series and also in the home series against England. There are speculations that he may replace Ishant Sharma in the squad for the WTC finals. However Ishant was never in the squad since Australia.
Former Indian fast bowler also believes that the trio of Bumrahm Shami and Ishant should continue to remain in teh attack in the WTC finals.
“Bumrah, Shami – the No.1 bowler for me in the Indian Test line-up – and Ishant Sharma, who has gotten better over his career. So, those three certainly will start and if it is a green seaming wicket, you might see a fourth one for all you know,” said Agarkar on Star Sports.
“The seamers will play a part and India has got as formidable an attack as any in the world. I think that’s been their strength over the last few years,” added the former Mumbai bowler, who played 26 Tests and 191 ODIs.
Agarkar, 43, said he cannot imagine a dry pitch in June in England and expected seam bowlers to get some help.
“We still don’t know what the conditions are likely to be, but we presume in England — with the Dukes ball in particular — there will always be help for seam bowlers. You can’t imagine a pitch being very dry in mid-June,” he added.
