Shikhar Dhawan bowled over by India’s ‘pace triology’

The year 2018 turned out to be a roller-coaster ride for India in Test cricket. They lost to South Africa in the overseas three-match Test series. Albeit, Virat Kohli and Co won at Wanderers in Johannesburg, they were already behind by 0-2 before the encounter. Next, the Indian team took part in a five-match series against England, which they lost 1-4 with their only win coming at Trent Bridge in Nottingham.

After a couple of lacklustre series’, India have done reasonably well in Australia where they are playing the four-match series. The visitors won the opening encounter at Adelaide Oval by 31 runs but slumped to a defeat by 146 runs at the new Perth Stadium. Nevertheless, instead of getting bogged down, Virat’s men made a strong comeback to win the third Test at the iconic MCG by 137 runs.

In all these three tours, their batsmen haven’t quite been able to step up consistently, barring Indian captain Virat Kohli. Meanwhile, the fast bowlers, especially Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Shami and Ishant Sharma have been exemplary. The trio boasts of 136 scalps in this year, surpassing the tally of Joel Garner, Michael Holding and Malcolm Marshall of the Windies way back in 1994.

Dhawan lauds Indian pacers  

Bumrah, the leading wicket-taker in the ongoing series, is the third-highest Test wicket-taker (48) in 2018 with Shami (47) at number three. Moreover, Ishant has 41 scalps to his name. Kagiso Rabada, the South African pacer, leads the pack with 52 wickets. Their stupendous display of bowling has impressed, Shikhar Dhawan, who has been out of the Test team ever since the England series.

He was speculated to play the Melbourne Test, but that eventually wasn’t the case. The southpaw couldn’t stop showering praise on the pace troika. The left-handed batsman took to Twitter, uploaded a picture, involving Shami, Bumrah and Ishant, and wrote. “The pace trilogy, they have bowled us over! @Jaspritbumrah93 @ImIshant @MdShami11 #TeamIndia,”

Here is Dhawan’s tweet

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