'Fast Bowlers Ki Line Nahi Lagi Hui Hai': Rohit Sharma's Sharp Retort to Query on Absence of Senior Pacers for West Indies Tour

Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Shami, Umesh Yadav, Ishant Sharma.

The famous fast bowling quartet isn’t part of India’s tour of West Indies for various reasons. Bumrah is recovering from a surgery, Shami has been rested, Umesh is injured while Ishant has fallen down the pecking order with the emergence of Mohammed Siraj.

India are lightweight on experience as far as their fast bowlers are concerned with Siraj, Shardul Thakur, Jaydev Unadkat, Navdeep Saini and Mukesh Kumar having played a combined 32 Tests between them.

India captain Rohit Sharma says the situation is unavoidable as they have to rotate players to keep them fresh in light of the heavy workload and the upcoming tournaments.

“We have seen fast bowlers taking wickets here. But the fact is people will get injured, we have to rotate players unfortunately. Humare pass fast bowlers ki line nahi lagi hui hai (We don’t have a long line of pacers). We have a lot of players sitting injured. So the bowlers who are available, we have to manage them. Hence, our experienced bowlers couldn’t be part of this tour,” Rohit told reporters on Tuesday.

However, Rohit is positive that the current set of pacers will be able to step up during the two-match series.

“But I’m confident of our new guys. Jaydev has been playing for 10-12 years. Mukesh Kumar has been a consistent performer in domestic cricket, has performed well for his state and zonal level. We will see what combination to play with. This challenge will be there in Indian cricket since we play a lot and obviously we have to manage players, rotate them, give them enough break so they are fresh,” he said.

2023 is also the year of the ODI World Cup and hence India want all their top players fit and fresh for the marquee event.

“We have to look ahead as well. There’s World Cup and we have to keep everyone fresh. Don’t have the luxury to focus on one particular series, have to look ahead also, which player will be needed more,” Rohit said.

“In a way this is good for the team as players are getting chances, we are creating bench strength. We cannot keep on playing with the same players for years,” he added.