Bringing up to speed: Finding India’s right T20 pace arsenal

With Asia Cup in the UAE and the 2026 T20 World Cup in India, focus will be on bowlers who can also deliver with the bat

- Somshuvra Laha

As the envelope gets pushed every year by six hitters, the need for bowlers who can stop teams from running away with the games is getting more acute. And since the next T20 World Cup will be staged in India where the imbalance between bat and ball can be the most drastic, it’s safe to assume taking 10 wickets won't get the biggest priority from the sides. How can India hope to tackle this challenge, especially the fast bowlers?

We will start with cues from the 2024 T20 World Cup final that was played on a similarly slow and unresponsive surface at Bridgetown, where India got nine overs from their slow left-arm bowlers Axar Patel, Kuldeep Yadav and Ravindra Jadeja. Three spinners bowling 12 overs is par for Indian surfaces, meaning any one of Varun Chakravarthy, Washington Sundar and Ravi Bishnoi (all right-arm bowlers, by the way) coulld be considered to take Jadeja’s place in the team during next month's Asia Cup in the UAE or in the World Cup. That leaves very little — nevertheless important — space for pacers.