India vs South Africa, 3rd T20I: No answers to fast-bowling quandary as India suffer defeat in last pre-World Cup contest

The last T20 International between India and South Africa was a non-starter for the hosts for most intents and purposes even before the match actually began. With the top order shorn of KL Rahul and Virat Kohli, and the bowling mostly being limited to some names who did not do their prospects to go in as replacement bowlers for the World Cup any good at all, with even the Arshdeep Singh out of action.

All in all, it was just a process of going through the motions, and when South Africa, thanks to Rilee Rossouw’s round 100 not out off 48 balls, notched up 227/3. The rest was just the formalities for a truncated and defeated Indian side with little or no plans for this one.

The only question that realistically remains for the Indian team is, who will be the replacement for Jasprit Bumrah, who was finally officially ruled out of the World Cup.

The prospects include several names, and we will try and see how they ended up in this event.

But first, a look at the Indian batting response to this massive challenge. It was immediately evident that the result wasn’t really even being considered and the home team had gone in knowing this was too big a total to chase with that line-up.

We saw Rohit Sharma being accompanied by Rishabh Pant as opener. Not quite a shock, since Pant really needs some batting time, which has been snatched lower down by Dinesh Karthik, who came in at No. 4.

As for Nos. 1 and 3, Shreyas Iyer coming as one-drop, it was quite a disaster. Sharma got a duck and Iyer just one run.

Pant did relatively better, with 27 off 14 with three boundaries and two sixes, while DK was his usual self, but this time for more overs than just the last two.

READ: We need to work on our bowling, says Rohit Sharma

He scored 46 off 21 with four each of fours and sixes. But both innings ended rapidly as well.

Now, the real quiz.

Among the potential replacement fast bowlers, there are names like Mohammad Shami, who was down with Covid, dropped from the T20 squad against Australia, and not included for the South Africa version, irrespective of what fitness certificates he showed.

Then, there is Deepak Chahar, already in the standbys, but somehow not an immediate replacement for Bumrah.

We hear of Chetan Sakariya and Umran Malik too heading for Australia. Or, it could be Malik and Mohammad Siraj, but none of that really concretised.

Then we hear Sakariya and Mukesh Choudhary will be going Down Under, as practice bowlers.

All in all, we still do not know who will replace Bumrah in the Indian T20 World Cup squad.

In the current crop, only Harshal Patel and Arshdeep among the seamers are in the squad, but the Indian team in the Holkar Cricket Stadium in Indore fielded Umesh Yadav and Siraj along with Harshal.

The sum total was that everyone was left wondering why Yadav, nowhere in the bowling plans for India, was being played.

Similar for Siraj.

As for Harshal, he has done himself no favours over the last few matches.

He went for 49 runs in four overs on Tuesday in Indore, preceded by none for 45 off four in the 2nd T20I and before that, 2/26 in the 1st, in a match where the visitors totaled 106.

Before that, Harshal Patel had figures of 0/49 (4 overs) and 1/18 (2 overs) in the two T20Is against Australia.

We have to concede that the Holkar Stadium with very small boundaries and a lightning quick outfield was a nightmare for the bowlers.

But that only goes to show that the lack of planning on how India would approach their last pre-World Cup series did not cater for how the bowlers would perform in the very last match.

So, the lack of planning percolates upwards and backwards to earlier times from where we have ended up.

India will have some serious issues in the T20 World Cup, and that is a specter which has been present for long. The injuries to Ravindra Jadeja, an unfortunate one, and Bumrah, result of lackadaisical planning, have sent out some shock waves.

While Axar Patel has alleviated the Jadeja crisis to an extent, not one fast bowler has been able to even come close to be reassuring, especially in the last overs, including Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Harshal Patel and Arshdeep. The rest don’t even seem to be any consideration.

Quite a pickle. But that is how it is, with just a few days to go to India’s first real test in the big one. This could well be an agonising period.

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