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India’s handling of its fourth seamer in this England series has been muddled at best. Across the four Tests, the fourth pacer has bowled just 55 of the 672.1 overs sent down by the visitor.
This isn’t surprising from a team that leans heavily on all-rounders. The fourth seamer has often been picked more for his batting than his bowling. That’s how Shardul Thakur (first and fourth Tests) and Nitish Kumar (second and third) found their way into the XI.
But the workload — or lack of it — suggests the captain doesn’t trust the fourth pacer to hold an end, let alone take wickets. And it’s not as though India hasn’t needed backup seam options. England has batted for 80+ overs in five of its seven innings.
After Day 2 at Old Trafford, Shardul was asked why he wasn’t bowling more.
“Usually, the captain takes the call. The player doesn’t have much of a say,” he said. “As far as this match is concerned… I could have been given two more overs. But there is a lot of time left in the game.”
He opened the bowling the next morning, only to be taken off after one over, just to switch ends for Mohammed Siraj and Jasprit Bumrah.
It wasn’t hard to see why. He had gone for 35 in five overs the previous day. Even with both Bumrah and Siraj nursing niggles, Shardul bowled just 11 of the 157.1 overs India delivered in the fourth Test.
Bowling coach Morne Morkel confirmed this was by design:
“A bit of a tough fit when you have four seamers… when you’re going at five runs an over, I think as a captain, you want to bring the strike bowlers back to try and take the wickets. Unfortunately, it happened for Shardul in the first Test as well,” Morkel said after the third day’s play in Manchester.
By the end of Day 4, England’s first innings was still going. Shardul’s contribution that day? Zero overs.
India, knowingly or not, had placed all its faith in three frontline pacers doing all the work. That gamble might pay off once — as it did at Edgbaston, where Akash Deep and Siraj took 17 of 20 wickets — but relying on that every time is wishful thinking.
It’s also naive to expect England’s batters, in a Bazball era, not to target the weak link early. A leaky fourth pacer was always going to be in the firing line.
India may have accepted that risk. Or it was caught off guard. Either way, it doesn’t speak well of the team’s planning.
The one Test where the fourth seamer had a decent outing was Lord’s. England batted more conservatively, and Nitish bowled 17 overs in the first innings — the most by a fourth pacer in the series. His economy rates that match (3.64 and 4) were respectable, but counting on England to play that way again is wishful.
Winning Tests consistently requires taking 20 wickets. To do that, India must be brave enough to pick bowlers who can bowl, not batters who can bowl a bit.
Sanjay Manjrekar put it bluntly after the fourth day at Old Trafford:
“What is coming through for everyone, despite India’s heroism with the bat, is that the selections have been quite poor. We saw what Shardul was capable of in the first Test. Despite that, he was picked again. And we saw the repeat of that inclination to have a bowler who can bat a bit. I think that thought has to be dumped,” Manjrekar told Sponne after the fourth day of the Old Trafford Test.
The draw India earned at Old Trafford was built on resolve from K.L. Rahul, Shubman Gill, Washington Sundar, and Ravindra Jadeja. It showed the top and middle order can handle pressure. The lower order’s runs shouldn’t be a safety net at the cost of bowling depth.
Manjrekar also raised the Kuldeep Yadav question.
“It has been hard to understand why India looks to get players who have two skills rather than just go for quality. Kuldeep Yadav not playing so far tells you the approach of this Indian team management. They say that India needs 20 wickets, but it’s going to be difficult to convince me, because if that was the case, Kuldeep would have played by now,” Manjrekar added.
Before the fourth Test, R. Ashwin floated an idea: play Kuldeep as the ‘fourth seamer’. On the face of it, it sounds counterintuitive. But it has merit.
Kuldeep would have brought variation, and — unlike Shardul — he would almost certainly have bowled more than 11 overs.
“You should look at Kuldeep as the fourth seamer and play him accordingly,” Ashwin said. “He could be a handful even on Day 1.”
As India heads into the final Test at The Oval, two questions loom: Will Kuldeep finally be brought in as the fourth bowler? And can India square the series with smarter selection?
We’ll find out soon enough, but the time for hedging is over.
