India coach Gautam Gambhir flagged the inexperienced bowling attack as the biggest challenge ahead of the five-match ODI series against New Zealand.
India won’t have the services of Jasprit Bumrah, who has been rested for the series, and will pin hopes on the likes of Mohammed Siraj, Arshdeep Singh, Auqib Nabi, Anshul Kamboj and Gurnoor Brar.
highlighted that many of the bowlers haven’t played in New Zealand and do not have great experience behind them, yet if they do well in the ODI series, credit must go to them.
“It’s important for me to win every series. It’s not just about winning in New Zealand. It’s challenging to win every series. Because if you look at it, this will probably be the most inexperienced bowling attack in ODI cricket,” said Gambhir when asked about how scheduling has impacted team preparations.
“No one will talk about it. But if you look at it, Aqib Nabi (1 ODI). Anshul Khamboj, one match. Gurnoor, how many? 10 matches (nine). Only is our most experienced bowler (18). “Despite that, if we do well in the one-day series, the credit will go to this bowling attack. It will go to these boys. We have experience in batting. We have a lot of experience in batting.
“But when you come overseas, your bowlers win the series, especially in one-day and Test cricket. So if we go ahead and do well in one-day cricket, a lot of credit should be given to these bowlers rather than talking too much about the batters,” said Gambhir.
India dominated New Zealand in the T20I series, and they’ll be hoping to do the same in ODIs, but the challenge will be stiffer. Bowlers from both teams struggled in T20Is, but if India need to win the ODI series, they’ll need their bowlers to fire. That might not be the easiest task, given the lack of experience of bowling in these conditions, this attack has.