Bumrah, Shami have raised the bar for Indian pacers: Bishop

New Delhi, December 4

Former West Indies fast bowler Ian Bishop says there is a “great deal of promise” in the current Indian pace unit, but didn’t foresee them performing at high levels in the future as well.

Bishop said that the foundation of India’s “another level” fast bowling unit was laid by the likes of Kapil Dev and built on by current captain Virat Kohli, who believes in the attack.

“Let’s remember that this group of bowlers did not emanate right now. The foundation was laid... If you go back to Kapil (Dev) and down the line, Javagal Srinath, Zaheer Khan, Munaf Patel, Sreesanth,” the 52-year-old Bishop said. 

“Now it’s been built on with a captain (Kohli) who likes fast bowlers, who believes in them,” he added. “But also the fact that you’ve found a generational talent in Jasprit Bumrah. Generational because he plays all formats of the game very well. And (Mohammad) Shami has taken his game to another level. Ishant (Sharma) has also gone up another level.”

Bishop, who played 43 Tests for West Indies, said he couldn’t have predicted that India’s fast bowlers would outbowl West Indian pacers in West Indies.

Indian pacers took 33 of the 40 wickets that fell during India’s 2-0 whitewash of West Indies in their own backyard earlier this year. “I couldn’t have predicted that India’s fast bowlers would come to the Caribbean, for example, and do to us what we did to them so many decades ago!” Bishop said. “So credit to Bharat Arun, the bowling coach, and the administrators and captains.”

However, he refused to compare the current Indian pace battery to that of the fearsome West Indians of the past. “Well, they have been performing that well that the comparisons are going to come. I would want to stay away from it, because I don’t know how you measure it,” Bishop said. — Agencies