What will be India's reply to the 'Best Bowler' in Test cricket?


image-ldsjnq6m(Source: Twitter)

The iconic battle is knocking at the doors. With each passing day, the interest around the Border Gavaskar Trophy is increasing. Both India and Australia have set their plans against the prime players of the opponents. 

Unarguably, the  Australian skipper Pat Cummins is going to be a big threat to the Indian batters. Cummins has an uncanny knack of exploiting the weakness of a particular batter and dismissing them at important junctures in a match. 

Cummins vs Indian batters

The Aussie commander-in-chief has a great record against the Indian batters. The three prime batters of the Indian line-up: Rohit Sharma, Cheteshwar Pujara and Virat Kohli really struggle against the pacer. Barring the three, even Shubman Gill and KL Rahul have a record which cannot be spoken of in high regards. Here is a look at the record of the Indian batters against Cummins. 

image-ldshzitkSource: OneCricket

*RPD - Runs Per Dismissal

Leaving the big three if we speak about Shubman Gill, his Runs Per Dismissal against Cummins is 19.7, while that of KL Rahul is 35.5. 

So what we see is that in general Pat Cummins dominates against the main Indian batters. But what is the thing about Cummins that really troubles the Indian batters? What is the general plan of Cummins' bowling. 

If we look at how Cummins sets a batter up, his general line and length heat map looks like this. 

image-ldsimhvq(Source: OneCricket)

The place where we see the red balls is the area where Cummins generally concentrates. The batter gets settled to play this particular line and length when he follows it up with a ball that lands in the green area. This catches the batter by surprise and he ends up giving his wicket.

The scope for Indian batters

The Indian pitches won't provide the bounce to Cummins to work on this line and length, barring the strip at Dharamshala. So, this is where the Indian batters can cash in. A bit of movement in the crease or changing the stance position in order to upset the rhythm of the Aussie chief. 

The main duty of upsetting the rhythm of Pat Cummins in the initial spell will be upon Shubman Gill, whose feet movement is very well synchronised. He will be the ideal batter who can upset Cummins very early, the benefits of which can be reaped by batters like Virat Kohli and Cheteshwar Pujara. 

Although, Shubman Gill's record against Right Arm Fast bowlers, so far in Test cricket is not that promising, I believe that he will be trump card for the 'Men in Blue'.


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