Bhuvi or Shami dilemma as India look to beat West Indies

By Anand Vasu

As the World Cup gathered pace with close matches around the shires, India spent four quiet days in Manchester. Having survived an Afghanistan scare on Saturday in Southampton, the team finally returned to the field of play on Wednesday, rain forcing them indoors for optional practice in the meantime. Old Trafford was bathed in sunshine as the team were put through their paces, and, for once, the focus was not on the batsmen or who would play at No. 4.

Instead, all eyes were on Bhuvneshwar Kumar, who sat out the previous match with a hamstring niggle. In training he bowled without any apparent discomfort, and coaching staff were confident that their primary swing bowler was not in any major strife.

“Bhuvneshwar’s injury isn’t of any great concern. It’s just a niggle, which we didn’t want to take a chance. And it was also an opportunity for us to plug Shami into the games,” said Bharat Arun, the bowling coach, on the eve of India’s match against the West Indies.

“But the fact he’s done exceptionally well goes well for us; it’s an embarrassment of riches. And we would take a call as per the conditions, but Bhuvi has done exceptionally well, so I think it’s a pretty good headache to have.” What Bhuvneshwar brings to the table is control, a sense of calm and extremely skilful swing bowling when the conditions allow it. Shami is less dependent on atmospherics, has a bit more pace and skids off the pitch. His biggest strength is a hard natural length that’s just a touch too short for the drive. For Shami this has been a time of major transformation. A year ago he was accused of domestic issues that forced the Board of Control for Cricket in India to withhold his central contract, something that was granted as soon as his name was cleared. Injury after injury meant that he was rarely in the team for any decent length of time.

And then a line was drawn. “It was a pretty long conversation [with Shami]. I can’t really bring that to the table here. But, yes, Shami was in a totally different mindset. And we had to — the head coach, me, all of us had to sit down and speak to him and kind of draw a future map for him and had to convince him regarding that. And he was going through certain personal problems as well at that point in time,” said Arun. “So beyond all that, I think what has really got him into the situation that he is is his ability to play cricket and that’s exactly what we made him focus on. And I think the rest is there for everybody to see.”

The rest that Arun is referring to was the hat-trick Shami picked up to nail down the Afghanistan match.

While India will be tempted to bring Bhuvneshwar back, logic and the fact that they are unbeaten over five matches allows them the luxury of playing Shami once more, giving him game time should he have to step in during a knockout match down the road.

The fact that this was India’s only real point to ponder over was underscored in the bowling coach’s pre-match press conference. When India play their next match, against England, they will sport an ‘away’ kit, as both teams usually wear blue. There has been much talk back home about India’s away kit being predominantly orange, or as some people see it, saffron. Arun, who generally fields questions about line and length, swing and seam, flight and turn, was asked about the colour of the team’s clothing.

“To be very honest we’re not even aware of what colours we’re going to be wearing. So we’ve not given any thought to that. And all our focus is on the match tomorrow (Thursday),” said Arun, and then came this exchange:

Q. To take the question only forward you are not bothered?
“I didn’t say I’m not bothered. I said we are focusing on the game and we are not aware of what colour we are getting.”

Q. Does colour matter to the team at all? That’s my question? Any colour for that matter?
“We bleed blue, right. Blue is going to be predominantly the colour and that’s it.”

While Arun allowed himself a chuckle initially, and then was careful enough not to take the bait, he would have had a hearty laugh with his mates when he returned to the dressing-room. After all, the team must be in a genuinely good place, all things going for them, when the colour of their clothes is the biggest issue doing the rounds.