Toss-up between Nitish & Shardul will come down to current bowling form: Bharat Arun

New Delhi: The key selection question for India ahead of their Test series opener against England at Leeds is who between Shardul Thakur or Nitish Kumar Reddy will be the preferred seam-bowling all-rounder. Bharat Arun, the former India bowling coach, believes the decision will be based on whose present bowling form is better.

In two red-ball games for India ‘A’ against England Lions in Canterbury and Northampton, Reddy scored one fifty and picked up two wickets. On the other hand, Thakur also picked up two wickets while his highest score with the bat was 34.

While Reddy is touring England for the first time, Thakur has played four Tests in the country – with his all-round contributions playing a key role in India winning the fourth Test at The Oval in 2021. “Nitish did exceptionally well for us in Australia and he’s shown us what he can do. But Shardul also has done very well for us in England on the last tour around. He was very handy with the bat.”

“I think, if I’m not mistaken, he’s got about two or three fifties on the trot and he came up with very important breakthroughs whenever given the ball. He can move the ball, and bowled in early 130s. So I think it will be a toss-up between the two as to their form and how they are bowling at that particular moment,” Arun told IANS in an exclusive interaction organised by Sony Sports Network.

With Jasprit Bumrah not to play all five Tests, the responsibility to step up on other quicks and all-rounders becomes very important, a point which Arun strongly agrees with. “If you need Bumrah to be playing for most of the Test matches, because it’s a huge mental advantage to Team India, I think the other bowlers need to step up.”

“They have the potential, according to me, and therein lies a challenge. A challenge is always an opportunity for me to excel. If they can look at it like that, understand and adapt their bowling to the conditions, then they would be doing a huge favour to the Indian team,” he added.

With conditions in England being challenging for overseas bowlers, the same is also the case for batters too, especially with India looking to fill the gap left by retirements of Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma.

“Indian batters are, potentially (wise), they are exceptionally good. But also, our batting is relatively not as experienced as it used to be earlier. But then again, it is how quickly they, again, I’m talking of adapting. Even as a batter, how quickly I need to adapt to these conditions is the key for us to perform well,” added Arun.

In his role as bowling coach for India’s tours of England in 2018 and 2021, Arun remembers the exhilarating performance at Lord’s in 2021 as the most memorable bowling performance he saw in the country. “Without a doubt, 60 overs in the Lord’s Test match. We bowled around 51 overs to get the England team all out on the last day. That was something which you thoroughly, thoroughly enjoyed watching.”

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IANS