Top 5 pacers Team India should groom for long-term success

India's resurgence in pace bowling attack has been instrumental in their recent victories. Be it away victories in Tests or in limited-overs cricket. A country that hardly had a so-called pace attack to dominate world cricket is now becoming a reality. Though still a long way to go, we can say that they are on the right track.

Team India always had world-class spinners playing in the set-up, but rarely had so many quality pacers playing at the same time. The MRF Pace Academy was there from the beginning but India didn't have its share of pacers back in the day and relied on its spinners to win games, especially in the Test format.

The process really got a kickstart to something special, which no one could have thought of discussing even 5-6 years back. Now, sometimes it becomes a headache for the team management whom to play and whom to leave out. It also indicates India's strong fast bowling bench strength, despite injuries to the team's premium pacers they can still fight. 

Now, the time has come to take the trend forward in the right direction as far as Team India is concerned. For the team management, it's the time to identify the talent and nourish the same so that it can flourish, and win matches for Team India, which is the ultimate goal.

There have been quite a few names circulating in the domestic circuit in recent times or have already made their debut for India. Everyone has their eyes on these promising talents. Let's take a look at the pacers India should groom for the future. 

1. Umran Malik 

The last year and a half has been nothing short of a dream for Umran Malik. He came in as a replacement for Natarajan in the 2021 IPL edition for SRH, and since then he has been making headlines due to his raw-pace bowling. He is one of the leading contenders to bag the IPL 2023 purple cap from Sunrisers' side.

He has been one of the fast-tracked cricketers for India in recent times. He has hardly played state-level cricket for Jammu & Kashmir but has been making headlines since his first IPL match. His bowling impressed the Indian team management so much so that they kept Malik as a net bowler for the T20 World Cup 2022. 

He has played eight ODIs and eight T20Is till now. He started off pretty well, clocking speeds well over 145 km/hr in each match. But the only thing that he needs to improve is his control. He's been leaking runs of late. It is understandable that it will come with maturity, he has played very less competitive cricket with a leather ball. 

He needs to be more accurate, and the National Cricket Academy needs to work on him to ensure this talent doesn't fade away anytime soon. His 'X' factor i.e. pace should not be compromised. If he gets the right guidance and executes on the field, he can be a lethal weapon in the years to come.  His masculine physique gives him an edge over other bowlers when it comes to hitting the 150+ mark on the speedometer.