India will take on South Africa in the first of three Test matches at the ACA-VDCA Stadium in Visakhapatnam without the star bowler Jasprit Bumrah. But Sachin Tendulkar has faith on the reserve bench of the Indian cricket team.
Tendulkar on Bumrah’s absence
Speaking to IANS on the eve of the first Test, Tendulkar explained although the skipper would miss Bumrah’s service, he should not worry about the bowling attack.”When it comes to Bumrah, you are surely going to miss someone of his caliber when he is forced to sit away from cricket for some time because of his injury. But, I feel the Indian team does have the back-up strength as far as our fast bowling department is concerned.”
On India’s bowling attack
He shared his thoughts in detail about the spin and fast bowling department. In the fast bowling department, we have got good back-up with plenty of experience now so we are in that fortunate position where even on the bench we have got very good options. We will miss Bumrah but not to the extent where if he had been playing for some other country where if you didn’t have many fast bowlers, you would miss your strike bowler. When it comes to spin bowling, the combination we have has delivered for a number of years and so, I feel that our bowling should be able to create that pressure on South African batting.”
Indian team is currently rich with quality bowling attack but the need for left-arm seamer is still present. Speaking about the same, Tendulkar said, “Yes, a left-arm seamer would bring in variety as more the variation, tougher it gets for the batsman. He would come into play on the first morning and more so when a team bowls third or fourth as the left-arm seamer would create the rough areas wherein the off-spinner bowling from the opposite end would use the rough, just like a left-arm spinner uses the rough created by the right-arm seamer. So, a left-arm seamer adds value to the team as a wicket-taking bowler as also in creating that rough patch for an off-spinner.”
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