WTC Final: They are not genuine swing bowlers – Simon Doull on India’s bowling woes on Day 3

New Zealand’s commentator Simon Doull has revealed why the Indian fast bowlers failed to create any kind of impact on the third day of the World Test Championship final against New Zealand.

Doull stated Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Shami and Ishant Sharma are not genuine swing bowlers and thus failed to make the most of it.

There was a lot of help for the Indian seamers but they bowled without any luck on the third day. They were able to beat the bat on a number of occasions, the edges didn’t carry to the slip cordon and sometimes the ball flew over the head of the slip fielders.

In fact, both of New Zealand’s wickets came in front of square which summarizes the kind of day India had. Jasprit Bumrah was not at his usual best and that added to the woes of the team.

Ishant Sharma did trouble Devon Conway in the fag end of the day and also got his wicket but he was also not consistent enough with his line and length. Mohammed Shami, was India’s best bowler of the day and troubled the New Zealand batsmen with his pace, accuracy and bounce.

However, Shami didn’t have the rub of the green on his side and his barren run in the UK continued. Overall, the Indian fast bowlers were slightly on the short side and failed to hit the right areas on a consistent basis.

“They are not genuine swing bowlers. We know Jasprit Bumrah can swing the ball, Ishant is more of a swing bowler nowadays, coming round-the-wicket he has that angled wrist with which he takes the ball away from the left-handers, into the right-handers. Mohammed Shami has never really been a genuine swing bowler and he’s a seam bowler … That’s why they weren’t swinging the ball much. I did, however, expect the ball to seam a lot more. Shami and Bumrah at times found it but they probably weren’t just consistent enough like New Zealand weren’t yesterday morning,” Doull told Cricbuzz.

On the other hand, Doull added he expected a much better performance from India despite the lack of practice as New Zealand had dominated the first Test against England with the same kind of preparation which India had before the WTC final.

“New Zealand went into the first Test at Lord’s against England, they had the very same preparation that India had coming into this Test – intra-squad matches, training, practices – and they looked pretty set and ready to go.

Tim Southee bowled beautifully and Devon Conway came off ten days of the net session into a double hundred at Lord’s. And I thought India would be exactly the same. I think at times you may overthink it and say, ‘Did they have enough preparation?’ I think they probably did. I am sure in the last 10-12 days they would have bowled enough deliveries to make sure they were raring to go,” he added.