BCCI: In Search of A Left-Arm Seamer | India Cricket Team

A left-arm seamer would be a great addition to the Indian team and BCCI need to scout or search for one in the country.

New Delhi: India’s performance in white-ball cricket needs some introspection after the tour of South Africa and the T20 World Cup. While there are a fair bit of issues with the batting, some of it might be resolved with India regular captain Rohit Sharma coming back into the side along with Ravindra Jadeja and Hardik Pandya but India’s inability to pick up wickets at regular intervals, more so in the middle overs raises quite a few questions.

While lack of wrist spinners has been one of the problems for India in the middle overs, no left-arm seamers in the line-up also add to the problem. A left-arm seamer gives a lot of variety to the attack and can come in handy in the middle overs as well.

The likes of Irfan Pathan and Zaheer Khan were such an asset to the bowling line-up and more importantly, they could get the ball to swing both ways with the new ball. Now add to that a bit of reverse and already a batter has too much on the plate to counter which increases the chances of getting a break-through. The natural angle of the left-armer can also keep the batter guessing, especially if he can bring it back to the right-hander and the opposite incase of a left-handed batter.

While India have tried their luck with Khaleel Ahmed and Jaydev Unadkat, both were unable to cement their place in the side. Ahmed was a good prospect but seems to have faded away a bit off-late but Unadkat would consider himself a bit unlucky not to have got enough opportunities.

Arshdeep Singh has done a brilliant job for Punjab Kings in the Indian Premier League and bowls the difficult overs. There is no reason why we should not try him in the shorter formats of the game, given the circumstances.

Thangarasu Natarajan made his debut for India in December 2020, owing to his great run of form with the ball in the IPL but injuries seem to have sidelined him. The Tamil Nadu left-armer can also be a great choice for limited-overs cricket and has the knack of picking of wickets as well.

It is about time that the Indian team management looks at some of these options. Considering the kind of talent India had back in the days when Sourav Ganguly or Rahul Dravid was the captain or even Dhoni to that matter, there seems to be a dearth of left-arm pacers in India.

India at one point had Zaheer Khan, Ashish Nehra, RP Singh and Irfan Pathan, all vying for a spot in the playing XI. Back to the present and we are struggling to find one to add to the variety of the attack.