Adjust the length and line according to England's batsman, advises Pathan to India's support bowlers

New Delhi, July 1

India's five-wicket defeat in Leeds yet again showed the yawning gulf between Bumrah, who picked a five-wicket haul and the rest of Indian fast bowlers – Mohammed Siraj, Prasidh Krishna and Shardul Thakur. While Bumrah had a match haul of 5-140 in 43.4 overs, Siraj, Prasidh and Thakur had combined figures of 9-482 in 92 overs.

The erratic length and line of the trio presented numerous scoring opportunities, thus enabling England’s batters to accumulate runs with relative ease and chase down 371 on the final day’s play in Leeds. With India yet to secure a Test match victory in Edgbaston, the performance of their bowlers and how they improve on the mistakes made in Leeds will be subject to intense scrutiny.

Irfan Pathan, the former India left-arm fast-bowler, feels the bowling line-up with or without Bumrah should get two things right to level the series: - adjust their length and then make subtle changes in their lines for every England batter, including resorting to bowling a defensive line if needed.

“One thing which I would say is that adjusting the length according to the batsmen, which is very important, that's first thing (to improve upon). The second thing is, when England is attacking, going all out, can we not bowl a defensive line? But that defensive line will give you lot of opportunity to actually play with patience of England batters.”

“Like, employ a 7-2 field, which comes to my mind, as I talked about it as well in the commentary box. If you bowl that line, and if you are able to maintain it in that channel once they are set because see, once the batter is not set, you want to get him out. But if the batsman gets set, you want to get it away from him, and still bowl lot of dot balls, and maidens.”

“I remember there was a phase where in 12 or 13 overs, in fact, quite a few phases where the maiden overs hadn’t come. So, can we not think about that? I think we should think that. If England wants to play that bazball or attacking cricket, then play against that. Don't give them what they want. So, that should be one area they need to look, but that requires lot of control on line and length,” said Pathan to IANS in a virtual interaction organised by Sony Sports Network on Tuesday.

Bumrah bowled incisively and had control over his lengths at Leeds, unlike his less penetrative fast bowling colleagues. Granted that barring Bumrah and Siraj, rest of the fast bowlers are on their maiden tour of England, but they are now facing the steep challenge of squaring the series at Edgbaston.

Pressure will be on India’s support bowlers, including Siraj, to rise to the occasion, and produce exceptional performances at Edgbaston from Wednesday, with or without Bumrah’s presence. “If that (control on line and length) happens, you can bowl with lines for 7-2 field and say, ‘okay, you go on the leg side and try to hit it’, and see how much patience you have to play to that particular line.”

“If England is playing with five, five and half or six runs per over, that's actually taking the game away from you, especially when you were already ahead in the game in the first innings and this is what happened in the last game. So, two things India can get better at - adjusting the length and the line according to the batsman.”

“Because someone is tall or short, someone plays pull shot really well, someone plays straight bat shot really well, someone leaves the ball more, or someone doesn't leave the ball more. Once you have tried everything, if it doesn't work, go for defensive line which can be very attacking against England,” concluded Pathan, who played 29 Tests for India.

Watch 2nd Test Between India & England on July 2nd, 3:30 PM onwards LIVE On Sony Sports Ten 1 & Sony Sports Ten 5 channels

— IANS