While India’s bowlers might have conceded 544 runs in their warm up game against a Cricket Australia XI, batsman Cheteshwar Pujara remains confident that they can do the job in the upcoming four-match Test series against Australia.
India’s pace attack comprising of Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Jasprit Bumrah, Ishant Sharma, Umesh Yadav and Mohammed Shami has been touted as one of the very best in the country’s history.
However, the tourists were made to toil in their four-day tour game at Sydney by an inexperienced CA XI batting unit led by Sam Whiteman. Pujara, though, remained unconcerned about the bowling attack going into the series opener at Adelaide.
“The bowlers already had a meeting, and conceding 500 runs in a warm-up game doesn’t mean anything,” the top-order batsman told reporters on Monday.
“It wasn’t a Test match, so we are not worried about it. Our bowlers know what they have to do. I can’t say what their game plan is, but they know what line and lengths to bowl in Australia, and most of them have played here in 2014-15. As a bowling unit, we are very confident,” he continued.
India were given a thorough workout by Cricket Australia XI.
India are chasing a maiden Test series win on Australian soil and have been tagged as the favourites by many due to the fact that the hosts are without Steve Smith and David Warner. The tourists have in tow a bowling unit capable of picking up 20 wickets consistently and have shown that they can perform in overseas conditions during the tours of South Africa and England.
Pujara believes it is one of the best India has ever produced.
“In the last few years, we have produced some quality fast bowlers and even when it comes to bench strength, even if a couple of our fast bowlers are injured, they will have some back-up. When it comes to fast bowling, this is probably one of the best attacks we have in many years,” he said.
India’s bowlers will hope to put their tour game disappointments behind them quickly and hit the ground running when the series opener at the Adelaide Oval gets underway on Thursday.