The Indian team reached the final of the World Test Championship and was the only Asian team in the top five in the standings. In fact, they topped the table! They also beat Australia in their home turf and conquered the test series against them. Well what made a difference from the past where India struggled in the SENA countries and the present! The obvious answer would be the improvement of fast bowling.
In 1932, India played their inaugural test at Lord’s and had England checked at 19-3 within 20 minutes from the start of the day. They had three fiery pacers then. When the country got partitioned, two of them moved to Pakistan and as expected, Pakistan began to produce a whole lot of fast bowlers. But that did not stop the Indians! They set up an academy to develop fast bowling which was headed by Dennis Lillee, who changed the dynamics of fast bowling in India. After him McGrath headed the MRF pace academy and many fast bowlers were produced in India.
The IPL has also given young bowlers to get up on the big stage and bowl against the best around the world. A lot of credit has to go the way of Bharat Arun, the fast bowling coach of India who has developed the skill sets of players like Bumrah, Bhuvneshwar, Shami, Umesh, Ishant, Siraj, Natarajan, Chahar, Saini, Shardul, Khaleel and so on over the years!
BCCI President Sourav Ganguly has also quoted a change in culture and mindset of bowlers on the fitness is also a big factor for India improving on their fast bowling. The fast bowling coach, physio, and fitness trainers of Indian team deserve a huge credit for this. A biggest inspiration for any team is its captain! And rightly so, Virat is a huge inspiration for all other players in terms of fitness and he is a captain who always believes in fitness!
And that(self-belief) has made everyone(Indian fast bowlers) understand and believe that if we are fit, if we are strong, and we can also bowl fast, like the others.
Sourav Ganguly
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