Simon Doull believes lack of swing bowlers resulted in India's dismal show on day three of the WTC Final

New Zealand perfectly exploited the overcast conditions in Southampton on day two of the ICC World Test Championship (WTC) Final against India, as they bundled their opponents out for just 217. Kyle Jamieson led the way with five wickets and displayed terrific control while bowling inswingers and outswingers. The same, though, cannot be said of Indian bowlers who just bagged two wickets at the end of day two.

While many fans believed the pitch eased out for batting, former New Zealand fast bowler Simon Doull believes that Indian pacers are not genuine swing bowlers.  India had the option of going with Mohammed Siraj, but they opted to go with veteran Ishant Sharma instead, who generally relies on seam-movement off the pitch, as do Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammad Shami.

The two wickets to fall were openers Tom Latham and Devon Conway who got out to Ravi Ashwin and Sharma respectively-India’s best bowlers on display on day three. Strangely Bumrah could not get a wicket and seemed a bit off-color. Shami didn’t have luck going with him as he induced quite a few errors from the batters. Doull feels a lack of good swing bowler would have been more beneficial In helpful conditions for bowling at the Ageas Bowl.

“They are not genuine swing bowlers. We know Jasprit Bumrah can swing the ball, Ishant is more of a swing bowler nowadays, coming round-the-wicket he has that angled wrist with which he takes the ball away from the left-handers, into the right-handers.”

“Mohammed Shami has never really been a genuine swing bowler and he’s a seam bowler … That’s why they weren’t swinging the ball much. I did, however, expected the ball to seam a lot more. Shami and Bumrah at times found it but they probably weren’t just consistent enough much like New Zealand weren’t yesterday morning,” Doull told Cricbuzz.

Lack of match practice is not an issue reckons Simon Doull

When quizzed as to whether lack of match practice was one of the reasons why bowlers were rusty, the former fast bowler vehemently denied by saying even New Zealand didn’t have match practice before playing the two Tests against England.

“New Zealand went into the first Test at Lord’s against England, they had the very same preparation that India had coming into this Test – intra-squad matches, trainings, practices – and they looked pretty set and ready to go. Tim Southee bowled beautifully and Devon Conway came off ten days of the net session into a double hundred at Lord’s. And I thought India would be exactly the same. I think at times you may overthink it and say, ‘Did they have enough preparation?’ I think they probably did. I am sure in the last 10-12 days they would have bowled enough deliveries to make sure they were raring to go,” he added.