Depth in current India pace attack best: Gillespie

Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Shami, Umesh Yadav, Navdeep Saini and Ishant Sharma — if he recovers from his injury — on the Indian side. Mitchell Starc, James Pattinson, Josh Hazlewood, Sean Abbott and Pat Cummins in the Australian corner. It’s quite evident the upcoming Border-Gavaskar Trophy promises a riveting battle on the fast lane.

Not surprising, former Australia pacer Jason Gillespie is waiting with bated breath to see the two heavyweight sides have a go at each other from December 17 (the ODI series starts this Friday in Sydney). In a conversation arranged by broadcaster Sony, the Adelaide resident tells DH about he thinks of this Indian pace attack, the absence of Virat Kohli for three Tests and the ploy to dismiss India’s nemesis Steve Smith. Excerpts…

Two sides with high quality pace attack. How do you see the series panning out?

I’m pretty excited I must admit to see such two sides with such great bowling depth. I’ve said this before and I don’t think India have ever had the depth in fast bowling more so than they’ve got now. You have to look at the guy still at home, obviously Ishant is still injured and on the way back. I’m really looking forward to seeing the fast bowlers from both sides have a go at the batsmen. I think Australia also have a very well balanced attack. I also believe India do. I think both the batting line-ups will have a challenge to put the runs on the board against two very good attacks.

Couple of good youngsters for India (Navdeep Saini and Mohammed Siraj), will they get a game, I’m not sure. I suspect India will probably go with their experienced seamers. But if I was them, I wouldn’t be afraid of giving the young guys an opportunity. India have nothing to lose really. India’s depth in fast bowling is probably the best it has ever been. No disrespect for Indian teams that have played before. It’s a testament to all the hard work the coaches and the players have done in India to improve fast bowling.

There’s no update on Ishant’s progress. And if he does recover, one wonders whether he’ll last all four Tests. So should India play Saini or Siraj?

I think Navdeep may just get an opportunity. It’ll be a big ask for Ishant to play all four Test matches. I think he’ll come out to Australia in time for Test cricket. But I don’t know how many games he’ll play. I think India will be hoping he can play two, possibly three Tests. But again that would depend on his fitness. I certainly think Navdeep may get an opportunity. Obviously Bumrah and Shami will play. But again they have to be managed as well as Ishant. So that’ll be for the Indian management to look after them the best they can. It’ll be exciting to see what happens.

Virat Kohli is going on paternity leave and will be unavailable for for three Tests. How big a blow is it for India?

It’ll be a huge loss for India, no doubt about it. When a team loses their best batsmen for 3 Test matches, it’s going to have an effect. We saw what happened when Australia lost David Warner and Steve Smith for 12 months. We saw the difference in Australia’s batting. India are going to miss him but it does provide an opportunity, I’m not sure who is going to be given that opportunity but it’s exciting. It just gives someone a chance to show what they can do. In Australia, against Australian bowlers, against one of the best attacks Australia has ever produced, it’ll be a great chance for whoever gets the opportunity. I know Australian crowds are little bit disappointed that Virat is not going to be here for the last three Tests. Everyone completely understands that his wife is going to have a baby and that’s more important than a game of cricket.

Smith has been a thorn in India’s flesh, having scored 1429 runs in 10 Tests with 7 centuries. What would be your ploy to dismiss him?

My personal opinion, a lot has been made about Smith and his technique and how difficult he is to dismiss. He is a difficult batsman to bowl to, I understand that. I think the absolute key to bowl to Smith is being disciplined with your line and length, look to hit that off stump as often as possible and get your field right because he is a master at finding the gaps. That’s what he is so good at. I would be doing my research, I would be looking at where he hits the ball more often, look at hitting most deliveries around the off stump and I’ll be setting my field according to that. All batsman have the capacity to either edge the ball or miss the ball or mishit the ball. He’s not superhuman. He’s just a very very fine player and a good delivery will be able to get him out. Bowl good lines and lengths, set good fields, that’ll be the most effective way to minimise Steve Smith’s impact.

There’s been a lot of noise on playing the talented and in-form Will Pucovski in place of regular opener Joe Burns. Your thoughts?

The coach in me, the selector in me would say back the incumbent Burns. He has done it, scored 4 hundreds in his first 16 Test matches (Burns has played a total 21 now), so clearly Burns can play. Obviously, Pucovski is a wonderful talent. He’s on the back of back-to-back Sheffield Shield double centuries so the noise is getting louder and louder to find a way to get him playing. So it’s going to be tough one. I think they’ll stick with Burns. But if Burns fails in a couple of Test matches, then the noise will get louder, maybe they’ll be looking at getting Pucovski in.

Crowds will be back to cricket for the first time since the pandemic started. Great to see the fans back?

I’m excited. I’m Adelaide based and I know the first Test is in Adelaide, a day/nighter. The SACA are fully expecting crowds. At that capacity I don’t know. Over the winter, the football matches had 50% capacity. So 50% percent at Adelaide Oval is 27,000 people. That’ll create a wonderful atmosphere if we can have 50% capacity at Adelaide Oval. We just have to wait and see. I expect us to have some crowd.

(Watch India tour of Australia Live and Exclusive from November 27, 8.00 am onwards only on Sony Ten 1, Sony Ten 3 and Sony Six channels).