Former West Indies speedster Ian Bishop in a statement said that the foundation of India’s “another level” fast bowling unit had been laid by the likes of legendary Kapil Dev and further built on by current captain Virat Kohli, who alleged to believe in the attack.
Bishop said that Kohli’s passion of putting together a strong fast-bowling unit has made it unexacting to build on the foundation that Kapil laid.
Bishop said, “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.”
“Now it’s been built on with a captain who likes fast bowlers, who believes in them. 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 (Mohammed) Shami has taken his game to another level. Ishant (Sharma) has also gone up another level,” Bishop added.
Bishop, who is known to take 161 wickets in 43 Tests between 1989 and 1998, said that he couldn’t have predicted that India’s fast bowlers would ever come to the Caribbean and do that to the West Indians what they did to others so many decades ago.
The 52-year-old also said, “So credit to Bharath Arun, the bowling coach, and the administrators and captains. I couldn’t see this much (improvement), but I thought there was a great deal of promise in having guys who could bowl close to, or over, 90mph.”
However, Bishop clearly declined to compare the Indian unit to the fearsome West Indians of the past.
He said, “Well, they (Indians) 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.”
“When people talk about (Michael) Holding and (Joel) Garner and (Malcolm) Marshall and (Colin) Croft and (Andy) Roberts – who bowled together for so many years – how do you compare with that?” Bishop asked.
