Our pacers getting outbowled by visiting pacers consistently now

[Gollum]

Not talked about enough. 

 

Becoming a pattern now. NZ with Henry, Rourke, Jamieson outclassed our pacers last year. Now RSA pacers have looked so much more incisive, always asking questions, being miserly. If we go a bit back, even Toyger pacers had us in dire straits in Chennai test last year (Nahid Rana with his 150+ bullets) while our pacers were less impressive. 

 

This never used to happen in 2013-21, not just our spinners, even our pacers always outclassed their counterparts. Shami, Umesh are legendary at home but even Bhuvi in 2016 against NZ, Ishant in 2017 BGT stepped up and did heavy lifting, against top opponents. 

 

In early 2024, Bumrah delivered a masterclass against Bazballers (in the process, making Root his bunny), picking 19 wickets in 4 tests, while Anderson, Wood etc. were fodder. Akasdheep also bowled very well in Ranchi, his debut test.

 

I thought Bumrah bowled well in the first innings here, but anyway Jansen has looked a different beast. Siraj is also struggling at home for a long time. 

 

People talk about missing Ashwin. I am missing the fire of Umesh, Shami.

Edited November 25, 2025 by Gollum

[Lord]

Pacers outbowled by opp pacers

 

Spinners outbowled by opp spinners (who play once in a while)

 

Batsmen outbatted massively

 

Proper minnow team

[Gollum]

2 minutes ago, Lord said:

Pacers outbowled by opp pacers

 

Spinners outbowled by opp spinners (who play once in a while)

 

Batsmen outbatted massively

 

Proper minnow team

Outfielded, outcaptained. 

 

This is as comprehensive as it gets. 

[vvvslaxman]

124 run chase even without a batsman should hav ebeen handled. Should have opened with Sundar and Jadeja. THey would not have surrendered their wickets like Jaiswal and Kela.

[Suhaan]

19 minutes ago, Gollum said:

Not talked about enough. 

 

Becoming a pattern now. NZ with Henry, Rourke, Jamieson outclassed our pacers last year. Now RSA pacers have looked so much more incisive, always asking questions, being miserly. If we go a bit back, even Toyger pacers had us in dire straits in Chennai test last year (Nahid Rana with his 150+ bullets) while our pacers were less impressive. 

 

This never used to happen in 2013-21, not just our spinners, even our pacers always outclassed their counterparts. Shami, Umesh are legendary at home but even Bhuvi in 2016 against NZ, Ishant in 2017 BGT stepped up and did heavy lifting, against top opponents. 

 

In early 2024, Bumrah delivered a masterclass against Bazballers (in the process, making Root his bunny), picking 19 wickets in 4 tests, while Anderson, Wood etc. were fodder. Akasdheep also bowled very well in Ranchi, his debut test.

 

I thought Bumrah bowled well in the first innings here, but anyway Jansen has looked a different beast. Siraj is also struggling at home for a long time. 

 

People talk about missing Ashwin. I am missing the fire of Umesh, Shami.

I have been already saying our pace bowling is declining fast

That decline is more evident when you see none of the earmarked backups have shown promise 

Need to chalk out plans ,to work at war footing on this

 

[singhvivek141]

This was writing on the wall,

 

Some of us in this forum has been talking about it for years. We lost Umesh & Ishant...Shami was growing old and our pace attack was stuck with Bumrah and inconsistent Siraj.

 

Prasidh, Akashdeep, Harshit hardly get an opportunity to get games. Prasidh & Akashdeep are ageing close to 30s...Gurnoor & Harshit are young but theyre not considered here. 

 

In every tom,dick and Harry test series we are using the same set of Bumrah, Siraj...there is no third bowler who can support them. 

[putrevus]

Shami  and Umesh were bowling thunderbolts against better SA team in 2018.While batsman battered, Rabada Muthuswamy and Maharaj.

 

Good coach and good captain are missing from this team.

 

Bumrah is better bowler than both Umesh and Shami but he is being overworked.

[aditya19]

Fast bowling was never our strength. Even the reserves are bad. But i am more concerned with spin , the quality of our spinners as well as our ability to play spin has gone down massively.

[Lord]

8 minutes ago, singhvivek141 said:

This was writing on the wall,

 

Some of us in this forum has been talking about it for years. We lost Umesh & Ishant...Shami was growing old and our pace attack was stuck with Bumrah and inconsistent Siraj.

 

Prasidh, Akashdeep, Harshit hardly get an opportunity to get games. Prasidh & Akashdeep are ageing close to 30s...Gurnoor & Harshit are young but theyre not considered here. 

 

In every tom,dick and Harry test series we are using the same set of Bumrah, Siraj...there is no third bowler who can support them. 

 

Akashdeep is better than Siraj in these conditions

[express bowling]

 

 

1 hour ago, singhvivek141 said:

This was writing on the wall,

 

Some of us in this forum has been talking about it for years. We lost Umesh & Ishant...Shami was growing old and our pace attack was stuck with Bumrah and inconsistent Siraj.

 

Prasidh, Akashdeep, Harshit hardly get an opportunity to get games. Prasidh & Akashdeep are ageing close to 30s...Gurnoor & Harshit are young but theyre not considered here. 

 

In every tom,dick and Harry test series we are using the same set of Bumrah, Siraj...there is no third bowler who can support them. 

 

 

Exactly !

 

No effective succession plan, for quick bowlers Umesh, Ishant and Shami, is the biggest issue. 

 

Dravid brought in medium pacers like Unadkat and Mukesh, who were bound to fail. Never supported any new quick pacer.

 

Gambhir removed Harshit Rana from the test set-up after just 1 bad test. Gurnoor not brought in yet. Tried trundler Kamboj for no apparent reason. Thinks floaty trundler NKR will be the next hit-the-deck Hardik.

 

Akashdeep loses steam after a few overs. Keeper stands up. He won't be the next Shami either.

 

Frankly speaking .... biggest issue is the lack of vision of Dravid / Rohit and then Gambhir / Gill regarding our fast bowling unit. 

 

Missing Shastri / Kohli / Arun's vision regarding our test match fast bowling. Every pacer under them were quicker, more accurate and more bouncy. Even the established pacers seem less motivated and less match fit under Dravid and Gambhir.

[Sooda]

5 minutes ago, express bowling said:

 

Dravid brought in medium pacers like Unadkat and Mukesh, who were bound to fail. Never supported any new quick pacer.

 

 

 

Who were the exciting young fast bowlers knocking on the doors? Umran and Sen were fast tracked both got injured. Even Tyagi got an A team match , also very injury prone

[Sooda]

The problem is deeper: Bharat Ramraj (who i think is brilliant on X) has said many times about the green tops with low bounce in Ranji that means the likes of Mukesh are deadly while doing very little, and there is no need to learn reverse swing like Shami and Umesh had to

[tapandrun]

2 minutes ago, Sooda said:

 

Who were the exciting young fast bowlers knocking on the doors? Umran and Sen were fast tracked both got injured. Even Tyagi got an A team match , also very injury prone

 

Umran got injured just this yr, but he is neglected way before his injury, same thing for sen he was available then went for knee injury , now also he is available.

Ind team has wasted their time with Saini (being selected for A tours), Unadkat, Mukesh, Avesh, mavi etc.. where are they now. And in other tours they selected bowler like Rasik, Aquib (UP) etc, 

 

 

 

[BacktoCricaddict]

2 hours ago, Lord said:

Pacers outbowled by opp pacers

 

Spinners outbowled by opp spinners (who play once in a while)

 

Batsmen outbatted massively

 

Proper minnow team

This same team took on England and (more than) held their own against an experienced squad. The inconsistency is puzzling. 

[Vancouver]

I don't know why Bumrah was playing in meaningless T20s recently. 

 

Siraj is out of steam for a while. 

 

The constant push from young lions forces old lions to continuously adapt, innovate, and maintain their skills rather than resting on past accomplishments. Where is fresh challenge and new talent to keep experienced players sharp and prevent complacency in this Indian cricket team?

[vvvslaxman]

3 hours ago, singhvivek141 said:

This was writing on the wall,

 

Some of us in this forum has been talking about it for years. We lost Umesh & Ishant...Shami was growing old and our pace attack was stuck with Bumrah and inconsistent Siraj.

 

Prasidh, Akashdeep, Harshit hardly get an opportunity to get games. Prasidh & Akashdeep are ageing close to 30s...Gurnoor & Harshit are young but theyre not considered here. 

 

In every tom,dick and Harry test series we are using the same set of Bumrah, Siraj...there is no third bowler who can support them. 

That is where Dravid has to take the blame. We were investing in Jayadev and Mukesh kumar.

[vvvslaxman]

1 hour ago, Vancouver said:

I don't know why Bumrah was playing in meaningless T20s recently. 

 

Siraj is out of steam for a while. 

 

The constant push from young lions forces old lions to continuously adapt, innovate, and maintain their skills rather than resting on past accomplishments. Where is fresh challenge and new talent to keep experienced players sharp and prevent complacency in this Indian cricket team?

Siraj played A game. He probably should have skipped it. He is one of the most over worked bowelr

[Lord]

1 hour ago, tapandrun said:

 

Umran got injured just this yr, but he is neglected way before his injury, same thing for sen he was available then went for knee injury , now also he is available.

Ind team has wasted their time with Saini (being selected for A tours), Unadkat, Mukesh, Avesh, mavi etc.. where are they now. And in other tours they selected bowler like Rasik, Aquib (UP) etc, 

 

 

 

 

Just being available cant be drafted straight in team. Umran has played very less FC matches without much success. 

[putrevus]

3 hours ago, singhvivek141 said:

This was writing on the wall,

 

Some of us in this forum has been talking about it for years. We lost Umesh & Ishant...Shami was growing old and our pace attack was stuck with Bumrah and inconsistent Siraj.

 

Prasidh, Akashdeep, Harshit hardly get an opportunity to get games. Prasidh & Akashdeep are ageing close to 30s...Gurnoor & Harshit are young but theyre not considered here. 

 

In every tom,dick and Harry test series we are using the same set of Bumrah, Siraj...there is no third bowler who can support them. 

Lot of people on here wanted to move from Umesh, Ishant and Shami after Dhoni's screwed them up after 1-12.But it needed captain like Kohli and coach like Shastri to resurrect their careers and make them into force.

 

Rohit just like Dhoni was not good captain for fast bowlers.There was few things about Gill i like as a captain , he seems to have getting best out of some fast bowlers, he has tools to be good captain which he can improve.But I feel Gambhir is the problem if he continues to be the coach.

 

 

[putrevus]

4 hours ago, Lord said:

Pacers outbowled by opp pacers

 

Spinners outbowled by opp spinners (who play once in a while)

 

Batsmen outbatted massively

 

Proper minnow team

Change coach and give captain couple of players, it will be unbeatable at home atleast.