Gautam Gambhir Should Revert to Virat Kohli – Ravi Shastri Formula for Test Success in England

It might sound like a cliche, but taking 20 wickets is actually what wins a Test game, especially in modern-day cricket. As India take on England in a five-match series, the focus should again be on taking maximum wickets, even if it comes at the expense of playing a batter short.

Former India bowling coach Bharat Arun has backed the five-bowler theory for this tour. Speaking on Sony Sports Network, Arun stated that if India play five bowlers, they will be fresh for each spell and can share the workload throughout the game.

“I think I am for that five-bowler theory. Because you need to get 20 wickets, and also the bowlers to stay fresh at every spell. So it is important to share the workload. So, five bowlers help you to share the workload, and the bowlers remain fresh for the entire Test match. So, definitely, yes. The five-bowler theory should be good.”

Since Gautam Gambhir has taken over, India have been reluctant to use five specialist bowlers consistently, as visible in recent assignments. For instance, India used Washington Sundar and Nitish Kumar Reddy as the fourth and fifth bowlers in Perth before using four specialists in Adelaide and Brisbane, and Reddy as the fifth during the 2024/25 Border-Gavaskar Trophy.

Why should Gautam Gambhir adopt the five-bowler theory?

When Virat Kohli took over the Test captaincy, he had a vision to develop a fast-bowling culture and had the support of Ravi Shastri, the head coach. That meant India consistently played five specialist bowlers most of the time, especially in away matches, with the aim of 20 wickets, which helps to win a Test match.

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Take the 2020/21 Border-Gavaskar Trophy, for instance, when India went with five specialist bowlers – Jasprit Bumrah, Umesh Yadav, Mohammed Siraj, Ravichandran Ashwin, and Ravindra Jadeja – in the Melbourne Test after being bundled for 36 in Adelaide. They could have added the batting depth for this fixture after such a massive setback, but they stayed with their plan to have more bowlers.

Similarly, they deployed five bowlers in Sydney and Brisbane to script a historic turnaround led by bowlers. They played with the same strategy when Rahul Dravid was at the helm on the South Africa tour in 2021/22, using four seamers and one spinner for all three Tests.

From 2015 to 2021, India had the best average (26.52) away from home (Ireland excluded because they played only one game). The dominance was not due to extreme pitches, for that was the case everywhere; instead, this was possible due to India’s attacking five-bowler theory on most tours.

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