A brilliant change of pace: how India went from twisting and turning to giving it unforgivingly straight Premium

A brilliant change of pace: how India went from twisting and turning to giving it unforgivingly straight

During his celebrated Test career, Sunil Gavaskar opened the batting in all but nine of his 214 innings. Less acknowledged is the fact that the Little Master also took the new ball in five innings.

That wasn’t so much because he was a fearsome, pacy little pocket dynamite – what an alluring prospect that! – as the fact that India needed someone to run in and bowl maybe an over or two before bringing their wonderful spinners into the picture.

How things have since changed! A searing revolution, that like most revolutions do, has gathered steam and come to such a pass that India now boasts a glittering array of pace-bowling riches spearheaded by the Kohinoor of fast bowling, Jasprit Bumrah, inarguably the best all-format quick bowler in the world right now.

India’s pace stocks had began to rise much before Bumrah’s international debut in January 2016. Mohammad Nissar and Amar Singh have been romanticised in Indian cricket history, and rightly so, even if there are no great visuals to provide a glimpse of just how good they were.

Their wonderful exploits in India’s inaugural Test, against England at Lord’s in June 1932, are well documented – Nissar finished with six wickets for the game and Amar four in India’s 158-run defeat.

But over the years, a combination of the pitches in India, the mindsets of those that masterminded India’s progress and the sustained emergence of a succession of high-class spin bowlers which culminated in the coming together of the great spin quartet in the 1960s took the sheen off fast bowling.

India held its own at home, as expected, but didn’t have the resources to fight fire with fire overseas. Its spinners made an impact even in unfriendly conditions but for India to succeed regularly away from home, it had to assemble a crack fast-bowling outfit. It took the Men in Blue a while doing so, but look at where they are now.