Big payouts for young fast-bowlers reflect cultural shift in Indian cricket

Team India hopeful and Delhi Capitals quick Avesh Khan went to the Lucknow Super Giants for a nice, round salary figure of Rs 10 crore, which was matched by Rajasthan Royals in the winning bid that they placed for pace wonder-kid Prasidh Krishna. In fact, the smallest of the big bids for Indian pace bowlers went to Mohammed Shami who got Rs 6.25 crore from the Gujarat Titans.

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Far ahead of the rest is Indian pace spearhead Jasprit Bumrah, who isn’t even in the IPL auction after having been retained by the Mumbai Indians for Rs 12 crore. Mohammed Siraj was retained by the Royal Challenges Bangalore for Rs 7 crore.

The writing is on the wall: IPL teams want to build their bowling attacks around a talismanic Indian paceman. This is refreshing as it is a testament to the fortunes Indian pace has experienced in recent times, both in India and abroad. Gone are the days when IPL teams invested in spin to win. In fact, the Chennai Super Kings, for one, have no specialist spinner in their ranks even stoically refusing to go back for a familiar face in Imran Tahir. Instead, pace has found its place among IPL teams.

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Is it surprising though, that teams have begun trusting and paying Indian fast bowlers? The statistics seem to suggest that it shouldn’t be. A quick look at India’s key victories in recent times proves that our pace bowling has been firing on all cylinders.

Test victories in England, Australia and South Africa owe their existence to the Indian pace battery, with heroic contributions from each and every one of India’s fast bowlers — Bumrah has five-wicket hauls in England, Siraj bloodied the Australians and Shardul Thakur bowled South Africa out of the Cape Town test just weeks ago.

Merely days ago, Prasidh Krishna walked away with a ‘player of the series’ award after bowling out the West Indies on a placid Gujarat wicket. He has a stupendous ODI bowling average of just about 16 in his admittedly nascent international career.

In fact, two of India’s pace bowlers are able batters too — Thakur and Chahar have won India international matches with the bat, while the latter has picked up an international hat-trick and a five-wicket haul in T20 Internationals. Such has been the pedigree of Indian fast-bowling in recent times that some of India’s pace bowlers end up fitting into the playing eleven as lower-middle order batsmen, just to allow the team to carry an extra pace option.

It’s no surprise then that Indian IPL teams have seen reason to give pace its rightful place in the battle of the bids. Should this be an indicator of things to come, it’s fair and safe to conclude that the Indian pace battery is in good hands. It’s also finally winning the reward for the grind, and coming up on top as a champion unit.