Ahmedabad: India’s call to rotate pacers over the course of a spinner dominated Border-Gavaskar trophy has been questioned but bowling coach Paras Mhambrey insisted on Thursday that their decision will benefit the speedsters in the long term.
Australia finished the opening day at 255 for 4 with Usman Khawaja scoring his 14th Test hundred.
While Mohammad Shami and Mohammed Siraj played the first two Tests, it was Umesh Yadav who got a home Test after a long time in Indore at the expense of Shami, who was rested from the game.
For the fourth and final Test, Shami is back in the playing XI while Siraj has been rested, giving a Umesh a rare back-to-back appearance in a home series.
“You have to take a call as you also have to look at the individual workload of each bowlers,” Mhambrey said when asked if pacers’ rhythm gets affected due to this break in game time.
“I think the way we looked at Shami, we needed to give him that break and it was an opportunity for us that someone like Siraj or Umesh also get a game.
“Looking ahead after this series, we have the World Championship (final) and we need to look at that as well. You have to at times, rotate bowlers and it is important for players as well,” he outlined.
Umesh, who was the best Indian bowler on view during the Australian first innings at Indore, conceded as many as 11 boundaries in his 0/58 in 15 overs going at an economy rate of nearly 4 runs per over.
“Ideally, you want a bowler to have two or three games consecutively but in these conditions, it might not happen. He (Umesh) looked in great rhythm in Indore in that spell that he bowled and he picked three quick wickets and there are days when you land up don’t getting a rhythm. May be that first spell that he bowled (to Travis Head) but later on he put the ball in right areas and was effective for us,” Mhambrey said in his defence.
