How does the rise of India in Tests coincide with the improvement of its bowlers' strike rates?

Ever since the commencement of Test cricket in India, the nation has seen a steady improvement in the longest format of the game. This can be down to a number of factors: improvement of batters and bowlers, better training facilities, better coaching facilities, better health and fitness routines and so on. In this article, we will look at how India’s bowlers has performed over the years since the first Test the country played in 1932 and how that has coincided with the rise of the nation in that format of the game. India was never a country that produced the best of bowlers in the world. If we look at other Test playing nations, India’s bowling department has always somewhat lagged behind. The likes of Pakistan, Australia and England have always produced better talent in the bowling department.

However, there has been a notable improvement in India’s bowling since the 1930s. Today, while the Indian bowling attack might not be the best in the world, it is still capable of winning matches against the toughest of opponents and from the most difficult of situations. Let us take a look at an era-wise comparison of Indian bowlers in Tests.

Era 1 (1930s-1960s)

India played their first ever Test match on June 25, 1932 at the iconic Lords cricket ground against England. As expected the Indians suffered a hefty defeat by 158 runs. In these three decades, India played a total of 112 Tests but could only manage to win 15. They drew 50 and lost 47 to cap off a truly woeful period of Indian Test cricket. A few stalwarts bowling department around that time were the likes of Lala Amarnath (45 wickets), Vinoo Mankad (162 wickets), Dattu Phadkar (62 wickets), Ghulam Ahmed (68 wickets), Subhash Gupte (149 wickets), Ramakant Desai (74 wickets), Bapu Nadkarni (88 wickets) and others. The average bowling economy and strike rate of the aforementioned bowlers was 2.23 and 88.54 respectively.

Era 2 (1970s-1980s)

The 70s and 80s were a transformative period in Indian cricket as the team definitively made its mark on world cricket. In 1983, India, led by Kapil Dev, shocked the world as they went against the odds to win the cricket world cup, defeating the mighty West Indies in the process. In Test cricket, India saw a steady improvement. The team played 145 matches in the 20 years, winning 28, losing 40 and drawing 77. While these numbers are not exactly flattering, it is definitely an improvement from the 30 years prior. Some of the biggest names in the Indian bowling department during this period were S Venkatraghavan (156 wickets), Bishan Singh Bedi (266 wickets), BS Chandrasekhar (242 wickets), EAS Prasanna (189 wickets), Dilip Doshi (114 wickets), Shivlal Yadav (102 wickets), Kapil Dev (434 wickets), Ravi Shastri 151 (wickets) and Manoj Prabhakar (96 wickets). The average economy and strike rate of these bowlers were 2.48 and 80.78 respectively.

Era 3 (1990s)

The 90s were, again, a transformative period in Indian cricket. The stars and heroes of the 80s were all in the twilight stages of their careers and it was time for new blood. As happens with any team when they’re going through a lot of changes, India did not perform as well as hoped. The Test team played 69 matches in the decade, winning 18, losing 20 and drawing 31. This decade saw the likes of the great Anil Kumble (619 wickets), Javagal Srinath (236 wickets), B Prasad (96 wickets) and S Raju (93 wickets) make their mark for the team. The average economy and strike rate of the bowlers were 2.66 and 72.35 respectively.

Era 4 (2000s)

India were a completely changed side from the 1990s in the 2000s decade. More than bowling, it was the batting department that saw an influx of world class talent like never before. The likes of Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly, Rahul Dravid, VVS Laxman, Virender Sehwag, Yuvraj Singh and MS Dhoni set the standard of batting in world cricket. This was a period when India, for the first time in their history, had the firepower to chase down any total or take it to any team regardless of their form or standing. The bowling department in the decade saw the likes of Kumble, Harbhajan Singh (417 wickets), Zaheer Khan (311 wickets), Irfan Pathan (100 wickets), S Sreesanth (87 wickets), Ajit Agarkar (58 wickets) and Ashish Nehra (44 wickets) come into the limelight.

This decade, India’s rise in Test cricket took a huge turn for the better, mainly under the captaincy of Sourav Ganguly. The team played 102 Tests in the year and for the first time in their history, recorded more wins than losses and draws. The W-D-L record was 39-36-27. When it comes to the bowling, the average economy and strike rate for the aforementioned bowlers were 3.19 and 68.26 respectively. These figures show that the team, at that point, was heavily reliant on its batting department to get the job done. However, all that was about to change.

Era 5 (2010s)

Enter the greatest Indian captain of all time, Mahendra Singh Dhoni. The 2010s was arguably the golden era of cricket in India. In those 10 years, the team won almost everything there was to win. MS Dhoni’s leadership saw the country bask in the glory of its greatest achievement, winning the 2011 cricket world cup. In Tests, the team reached a high that was only dreamed by generations past. India played a 107 Tests that decade and won 56 of them. They drew 29 and lost just 22. Unlike the decade before, it was not just the batters who were the stars. This time, it was the bowlers’ time to shine as well.

The charge was led by one of the greatest bowlers in Indian cricketing history, Ravichandran Ashwin (463 wickets*). The team also comprised of the likes of Ravindra Jadeja (259 wickets*), Ishant Sharma (311 wickets), Amit Mishra (76 wickets), Umesh Yadav (165 wickets*) and others. In the latter half of the decade, bowlers like Mohammad Shami (223 wickets*), Bhuvneshwar Kumar (63 wickets*) and Jasprit Bumrah (128 wickets*) made their mark. The average economy and strike rate of the aforementioned bowlers are 2.98 and 56.7.

Era 6 (2020s*)

Well, it is a bit difficult to talk about an era that has not even crossed the halfway mark yet. Ever since 2020, India has been consistent in Tests. They have played 26 matches, won 14, lost nine and tied three. The star bowlers in the Test team today are Ashwin, Jadeja, Shami, Mohammad Siraj (47 wickets*) and Axar Patel (48 wickets*). So far, the average economy and strike rate of the aforementioned bowlers are 2.83 and 51.06 respectively.

To sum it all up

Let’s take a look at the table below

What we can infer from the table above is that there is a direct relation between India’s performances in Test cricket and the strike rate of its bowlers. The nation has only gotten better, decade by decade in Tests and the one statistic that has consistently gotten better is the frequency at which their bowlers pick up wickets. Economy, on the other hand, has gone up but that is solely due to how the game has changed over the years. Today’s fast paced cricket is a batter’s paradise and more often than not, a bowler’s nightmare. Still, there has been a steady improvement in economy since the 2000s. Therefore, it can be said that the more Indian bowlers take wickets in Tests, the more the team will get better in the longest format of the game.

List of the greatest Indian Test bowlers

Below is a list of the best bowlers who have taken at least 100 wickets for India in Test cricket. The table is sorted as per the strike rates, from best to worst. As is evident, pacers Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammad Shami lead the line, followed by Umesh Yadav, Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja. Kapil Dev comes in at ninth with 63.9 while Anil Kumble makes 12th with 65.9.