India’s pace bowlers have arrived to the party at this year’s World Cup

Indian pacers ran riot against England and bundled them out for just 129 in the group stage encounter in Lucknow.

For much of the tournament, the conversation surrounding the Indian cricket team has been around the batting riches offered by Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, and KL Rahul and with good reason. All three batters are averaging over 66 this World Cup and are either responsible for outstanding top-order starts or middle-order safety and run-chases or both. Kohli and Rohit are also among the top-scorers in the competition.

But, as they say, a great batting unit will win you games but a great bowling will win you tournaments. Indian pace bowlers have arrived at the World Cup with a bang and so far, opposition batters have very little answer for them.

The sensational Jasprit Bumrah has always been in the mix. After all, he is the leader of this pace-bowling revolution that has blessed Indian cricket over the last 4-5 years and it isn’t surprising then that Bumrah, returning to the fold after a lengthy injury, is the second-highest wicket-taker in the World Cup with 14 scalps in six matches at an average of 15.07 and economy rate of 3.91.

India’s Asia Cup final hero Mohammed Siraj has been quiet in comparison with only six wickets in six games but he has often been responsible for important breakthroughs. Take the case of the Babar Azam dismissal during the high-voltage clash with Pakistan.

Before that wicket, Pakistan were cruising comfortably at 155/2 before the 29^th over and given how well both Babar and Mohammad Rizwan were timing their shots, a lengthy partnership looked like it was only a matter of time. Siraj, however, had other ideas as he cleaned up the Pakistani captain’s stumps.

That single delivery completely changed the nature of the match as the Pakistan batting unit collapsed like a deck of cards from that point on and ended up getting bundled out within the space of 36 runs. The run-chase of 192 became a formality for the Men in Blue.

But by far the biggest success story among Indian pacers this World Cup is Mohammed Shami. Shami began the campaign from the bench and was on the sidelines for the first four matches. However, an unfortunate injury to Hardik Pandya opened the doors for his return to the starting XI and Shami hasn’t looked back ever since.

In the two matches he has played so far, the seam-bowling master has registered nine dismissals at an outrageous average of 8.44. He also has the best strike rate of 11.33 among anyone in the top 20 highest wicket-takers’ list in this competition.

He took a wicket on his first ball in this year’s World Cup and having grabbed a five-wicket-haul against New Zealand, became the first Indian bowler to take two fifers in World Cup history. And last night against England, Shami managed to put up yet another exhibition of seam bowling.

His set up to dismiss England’s Ben Stokes has already gone viral. Shami consistently delivered inswingers to cramp the left-hander for room and piled pressure on him with consecutive dots. Stokes tried to swing his bat but failed to find any gaps in the circle.

To deliver his final sucker-punch, Shami brought the delivery in fiercely targetting the middle stump and rattled his wicket like he was bowling in the nets! He also dismissed Jonny Bairstow, Moeen Ali, and Adil Rashid to claim 40 wickets in World Cup history. He’s just outside the top 10 highest wicket-takers in this competition’s history and only Javagal Srinath and Zaheer Khan from India (both with 44 wickets) have registered more dismissals than him. But Shami has managed to achieve this incredible feat in only 13 matches - by far the lowest!

Not only is Shami now one of the first names on the team sheet even if Pandya returns to the fold, he will also be eyeing a piece of history and hoping to become the highest wicket-taking Indian bowler in Cricket World Cups. India are stronger with him on the pitch and in Bumrah and Siraj, not only is the bowling relentless and lethal, but it is also complete in most regards.