England vs India: Visitors have sufficient bowling reserve, feels Zaheer Khan

Former Indian pacer Zaheer Khan, who had played a key role in India’s Test-series victory in England in 2007 after a gap of 21 years, is of the opinion that the visitors have a sufficient bench strength to make up for the absence of injured pacers like Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Jasprit Bumrah, at least for some part of the upcoming five-game Test series against England, starting at Edgbaston on August 1.

India named their squad for the first three Tests and the bowling department features names like Ishant Sharma, Mohammed Shami, Umesh Yadav and Shardul Thakur besides Bumrah, who missed the T20I and ODI series because of injury.

India’s bench strength is very strong

“Bumrah is injured for the first few matches and there has been an injury concern to Bhuvneshwar Kumar, which is a concern seeing the forthcoming season, but I believe even after their injuries, the five-match tournament is a long series,” Khan, who played 92 Tests for India between 2000 and 2014 and has 311 wickets in the format, said, according to the First Post.

“I believe whichever bowlers will play – like Umesh (Yadav) is doing well, Ishant (Sharma) is a senior bowler and has to take more lead (role) and Mohammed Shami has a good record – I believe their (Bhuvi and Bumrah’s) absence will be felt, but still India’s bench strength is very strong,” the former Indian bowling spearhead said.

Kumar suffered an injury during the third ODI against England recently.

Khan, 39, was speaking after inaugurating the Kanakia Monsoon Marathon Challenge in Mumbai along with his wife, actress Sagarika Ghatge, at the Bandra-Kurla Complex on Sunday (July 22) morning. He agreed with former captain Sachin Tendulkar’s opinion that India’s current bowling attack is the most complete in recent years.

Khan also opined that India need to play consistently well in the long Test series and hoped that ‘it will be an Indian summer’ this year, having witnessed the conditions.

India had two terrible outings in Tests against England in 2011 and 2014 as they lost both the series 1-3 and 0-4, respectively.

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