Harbhajan Singh comments on the absence of Indian star bowling duo

Asia Cup 2022 UAE has started and the campaign started with the match of Afghanistan vs Sri Lanka, where the Afghanistan bowlers punctured the Sri Lankan batting line-up and won the match comfortably by 8 wickets.

The Afghanistan bowlers played a crucial role in the victory against Sri Lanka and the former Indian right-arm off-break bowler Harbhajan Singh comments that India is missing out on two key players like Bumrah and Harshal Patel for the Asia Cup.

Harbhajan in an interview with Sports Today revealed that “India is without their two big guns, Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammad Shami. They are as big as Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma. Imagine those two not playing. The same goes with Bumrah and Shami not playing.”

Even with the absence of two-star pacers India still has a world-class bowler in the form of Bhuvneshwar Kumar who is the second highest wicket-taker for India in the history of the T20 format, and Harbhajan feels that Bhuvneshwar alone won’t be able to handle the pressure in those conditions.

He further went on to say that “When the ball isn’t swinging, it becomes even more important for bowlers to get their line and lengths right. If the conditions aren’t favourable, you need to alter your game accordingly. Bhuvneshwar Kumar is someone who swings the ball both ways. But these conditions won’t allow him to swing the ball, the line and length will be critical, and you can’t afford to give batters room. It’s great if you find a swing, but if not, you’ll have to pull the length back and stick to it.”

Alongside Bhuvneshwar the young and upcoming pacers like Avesh Khan and Arshdeep Singh will be supporting him in the bowling department. Harbhajan also feels that leaving out Md Shami is a big mistake.

Harbhajan went on to say that “Mohammed Shami and Harshal Patel are also not there. So the bowling of the Indian team looks slightly weak to me, but India has better spinners like Yuzvendra Chahal and Ravichandran Ashwin have a lot of experience, they can help the team win.”

Team India will face Pakistan in the second match of the Asia Cup UAE 2022 on Friday at 7:30 PM IST. Catch all the live action on Star Sports Network or Disney plus Hotstar.