India's captain Virat Kohli, right, celebrates the dismissal of Sri Lanka's Dasun Shanaka by teammate Jasprit Bumrah, center, during the second Twenty20 international cricket match between India and Sri Lanka in Indore
India's bowling department gives the management a happy headache with a huge pool of options who have featured for the nation over the last two years. And hence, it has been one department which has even troubled fans and analysts to figure out the perfect combination and their appropriate back-ups while abiding by Virat Kohli's rule of having six bowling options in the playing XI.
Talking about the pace attack that sees the likes of Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Jasprit Bumrah alongside newbies like Navdeep Saini and Deepak Chahar, Kohli named yet another surprise package for the impending World T20 in Australia starting October onwards.
"Really pleased to have Jasprit back in the side. He's bowling with pace again. You'll have to figure out who are the people that are very similar in their bowling skills, and you pick the senior one. I think one guy will be a surprise package going to Australia, someone who can bowl with pace and has bounce. Prasidh Krishna has done well in the domestic arena as well. This group of bowlers, it is a great luxury to have in all formats. Looking at the big World Cup, we have enough options," said Kohli with a smile.
Besides the pace attack, India also have Kuldeep Yadav and Yuzvendra Chahal as their premier spin options besides all-round options in Washington Sundar and Ravindra Jadeja.
India featured Kuldeep and Sundar in the second game against Sri Lanka instead of Jadeja and Chahal owing to the presence of left-hand batting options.
"It (spinners selection) was purely based on the number of left-handers they (Sri Lanka) have. Kuldeep takes the ball away so does Washington. It's all about match-ups. If there are more right-handers, Jadeja and Chahal become more lethal. As a captain, you need more than five bowlers in T20 cricket. Beautiful surface, we bowled really well, we pulled things back really well," said Kohli.
India still have 14 more international matches besides the Asia Cup to figure out the combination.
