AUS vs IND 2024-25: India missed left-arm pacer in squad, says Sunil Joshi

India ended their ongoing World Test Championship campaign with a disappointing 3-1 loss to Australia in the 2024-25 edition of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy. While the batting unit could be deemed to be more at fault for their underwhelming performances on several occasions, a dearth in the variety in the Indian bowling unit was visible too. Apart from ace pacer, Jasprit Bumrah, who ended up as the Player of the Series with 32 wickets to his name, no other bowler could pose any consistent sort of threat to the Australians.

Former Indian left-arm spinner, Sunil Joshi, was confident that there was no shortage of budding pacers in India. However, he rued the fact that India did not field a single left-arm pacer from their end throughout the five-match series, owing to most of the oppositions from SENA (South Africa, England, New Zealand, and Australia) finding it tough to deal with them.

“No, because we already have Troy Cooley (fast-bowling coach), he’s been at the NCA, and is looking after the fast-bowling pool. So, I don’t think there should be any worry. But definitely, we did miss a left-arm seamer in that line-up. If a left-arm seamer had been there, then there would have been a little bit of change in angles because most of the Australian, English, or New Zealand batters, they are not very comfortable facing the left-arm seamer because you’re taking the ball away from a different angle. We just needed variety, but both Yash Dayal and Khaleel Ahmed were there, but they couldn’t play, and that’s unfortunate," stated Joshi, as quoted by News18.

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Tactically, when it doesn’t go well, we’ll be questioned: Joshi

The former chief selector also underscored on the lack of control on display by the bowlers other than Bumrah. According to him, the tactics employed by the team management in general did not reap any substantial rewards. 

“Tactically, when it doesn’t go well, then we’ll be questioned. If it goes well, we say that 'okay, it’s a good tactic used'. We just need to look at what the opposition team did – like what are those tactical moves they did consistently well? Like, one can look at their fast bowlers or even at Nathan Lyon – he didn’t do anything, he just kept his patience and his consistency. Did we do that? No, except Bumrah," added Joshi.

Interestingly, both Dayal and Khaleel were present as net bowlers with the Indian setup for the entirety of the Australia tour. However, they were merely used as net bowlers and were not considered to be part of the 18-member squad.