“Test cricket is about taking 20 wickets and India managed to do that twice against England. Our job is to combat that,” Australia vice captain Tahlia McGrath said about her opponent ahead of their clash in the one-off Test which begins on Thursday.
That kind of ruthlessness does not happen overnight, especially for a side that until recently was emerging from the shadow of two of the biggest personalities to ever play the game - Mithali Raj and Jhulan Goswami - more the latter in case of the bowling arsenal.
“It’s a big difference in height to start with and we can’t fill those shoes. To fill that gap, it’s going to take time,” India’s bowling coach Troy Cooley said in the run-up to the Test.
File photo | Jhulan Goswami troubled Australian batters during the last Test encounter between these two sides. | Photo Credit: Getty Images
Goswami, even at 39 (how old she was when she retired), spearheaded India’s pace attack. She took charge with the new ball and her testing line and length often left opponents rooted to the crease. She enjoyed tempting batters around the off stump, her height allowing her to generate extra bounce. Her cutters and yorkers made for great highlight reel fodder and she finished her career with a massive haul of milestones to her name.
So how do young bowlers, who have perhaps been alive only as long as Goswami actively played international cricket, take on the utterly unenviable task of carrying forward a team after her?
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The best teachers are students
A day before India took on England in the one-off Test at Navi Mumbai, the side had a busy practice session. While the batters got down to their warmups and routines rather swiftly, the bowling core was huddled up around coach Troy Cooley. Over 30 minutes went by, but the huddle was as tight as ever. Cooley then emerged with a piece of paper too tiny for reporters to decode even with the best binoculars in the press box. The spinners followed Cooley, primarily a pace bowling coach, followed the notes pinned to the nets and went about their drills. The former Aussie pacer was rarely left alone. The players, from Rajeshwari Gayakwad to Renuka Singh Thakur, went up to him with notes on the run-up, angles and lines. It was an academic pursuit from head to tail that went on for the course of India’s training schedule, not just on the said day, but through the course of the Test match.
Renuka’s dogged determination has helped induct variations into her toolbox, something Cooley is mighty pleased about. | Photo Credit: PTI
“For me to be able to come in as a bowling coach and work with more spinners than seamers was a challenge when I entered the job,” Cooley said sheepishly ahead of the one-off Test against Australia.
“However, I thoroughly loved it. I am learning a lot from the spinners. We’ve got a lot of good spin coaches at the National Cricket Academy who are happy to share ideas and I am happy to learn on the job. The bowling unit here works very well together. The bowlers are very selfless in how they look to match plans,” the 58-year-old explained.
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Perhaps having a teacher who is keen and visibly excited to learn helps this pack, looking to flesh out a fresh legacy under skipper Harmanpreet Kaur.
Deepti Sharma had a great Test against England, finishing with a match haul of nine wickets
Working as a pack
Deepti Sharma, after her five-wicket haul on day two, credited bowling partnerships for her success. There was a time when she was the spin half of the new ball rotation alongside Goswami or more recently Renuka. In the Test against England, she was Harmanpreet’s final bowling change, getting the ball only in the 26th over. She made up for lost time, taking her maiden Test fifer in five and a half overs. Deepti had Sneh Rana constantly in her ear, giving her inputs on how the wicket behaved when she had the ball and what worked and didn’t work for her. They identified a set number of patches along the wicket and bowled into those areas to generate maximum turn.
This wasn’t an all-spin gala. In England’s second innings, Pooja Vastrakar decided to make the day her own. While Renuka has been India’s first-choice new ball bowler, Pooja made a case for her to be given more seam bowling responsibility early on with a vicious spell that helped India wrap up the English innings in the first half of day three.
Her evolution makes her former coach WV Raman beam with pride. While commentating, Raman spoke about how Pooja’s control over the ball got better when the shine came off, which could be why Harmanpreet held off for a bit before unleashing her on a down-and-out visiting side.
“Pooja, I felt, has always been a reluctant lead bowler. The performances now show otherwise. She needs to put in the work consistently and also come to terms with the fact mentally that she has all the makings of a lead bowler. Look at how she dismissed two of the best batters in the women’s game right now - Heather Knight and Nat Sciver Brunt,” Raman told Sportstar after the Test.
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Illusions of being pain-free
Cooley, like everyone else who has been following her career trajectory for a while, alludes her confidence to better fitness.
“Pooja had a sore knee. She came back well through rehab. She worked on improving her run-up and got the most of it. Now she’s more balanced at the crease. She’s getting a more natural tendency to get into the stumps and trouble the batters. She’s got enough pace and variations to be a good red ball bowler,” Cooley said.
The Australian also has praise for Renuka, who dismantled England with key dismissals in the top order to get the ball rolling for the rest of the foot soldiers to finish the job. Renuka tends to be reliant on angling the ball into and away from the batter but Cooley believes her tool box has gotten a bit bigger.
“Not only does she swing the ball back in naturally, but now she also has a ball that straightens and a ball that leaves the right hander. It’s great to see her using angles. I like how she’s putting together her deliveries. Her tool box is quite big now but she’s certainly using those tools in a strategic and tactical manner,” Cooley explained.
Pooja Vastrakar | Photo Credit: Sportzpics for BCCI
Job well done, but half done
Once the Test was won and hands were shaken, the Indian contingent’s celebrations truly began. Fans went up for autographs, family members stood around documenting and soaking in every moment. Meanwhile, Cooley had quietly started assembling his band of bowlers. Those who played, those who didn’t - all were all rounded up for a ‘bowlers’ photograph.
Wide smiles, bear hugs and poses of different kinds followed. Picture perfect as those prints maybe, the biggest takeaway for this side will be the workings of a well-oiled machine primed to march on with confidence. That will help, given India now goes up against Australia which can field up to nine bowling options if it requires. The Aussies may not prove to be as much of a pushover as England did, but Cooley knows better than to over- or underestimate his opponent and his own contingent.
“Every pacer wants to bowl with the new ball because you get some assistance and movement. According to team plans, we give Renuka the new ball and Pooja is more than happy with that and supports Renuka completely and then we see Sneh come on. It’s not about trust at all. We trust her which is why she’s in the team. We need to go with bowlers who can draw out those early wickets but yes,everyone is part of a large plan and are happy to play their parts,” Harmanpreet had said about Pooja after the England Test. She handed Pooja new ball duties on day 1 of the Test against Australia. | Photo Credit: Emmanual Yogini
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“Whenever someone says ‘ never’ to me, I always think we can do the opposite,” the coach said, as Aussie as ever!
Rudyard Kipling famously wrote in The Jungle Book, “For the strength of the pack is the wolf, and the strength of the wolf is the pack.” From an organised coaching setup and clear plans for oneself and who one goes against, to remarkably talented individuals who are eager to use every opportunity to push the peripheries of a game a little further than it was, India is more than ready to challenge the traditional rulers of the wild and perhaps even win.
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