As the Indian team gears up for the Proteas challenge, the boys in blue have a couple of departments to address, especially death bowling. Despite the conditions being extremely challenging, India's pace battery is going all out as the battle for selection intensifies in the training nets. The bowlers, fresh out of the IPL are not just trying to hit the perfect rhythm but are also trying to impress the management and the leadership group to get into the final eleven.
Bhuvaneshwar Kumar, who is all set to lead India's pace attack just bowled for 15 odd minutes to fine tune his skills. On the other hand, Harshal Patel, who is almost a certainty to get into the final eleven was rested just to refresh and recharge himself. Other than these two pacers, the new entrants in the team Umran and Arshdeep, under the watchful eyes of Rahul Dravid and Paras Mhambrey turned the heat on. Malik who was handed extended spells in the net was overshadowed by the Punjab Kings pacer Arshdeep Singh. The left-handed pacer who has been impressive constantly for two years at the death now looks like cutting ahead of his counterpart Umran Malik. As of now, it seems very unlikely for them to debut as Bhuvaneshwar, Harshal, and Avesh are way ahead of them in the race.
Umran Malik who has been extremely lethal with his pace in the recently concluded IPL 2022 was smacked by Rishabh Pant in the India training nets. Pant did not take a backward step and kept hitting Malik's thunderbolts. On the other hand, Singh was seen fine tuning his yorkers under the supervision of India's bowling coach Paras Mhambrey. The Punjab Kings pacer bowled a short spell and continued to work on yorkers, a delivery he executes perfectly and which has been a vital factor in earning him the India cap. When compared, Arshdeep surprisingly came out as a better bowler indicating the fact that he is ahead in the race for that legendary India cap.
(Inputs from PTI)
