The Thing About Kohli's Bouncers

India’s pace pack—the most lethal in the world—has the ability to demolish the best batting fastnesses.

- Qaiser Mohammad Ali

It takes a Test series victory against Australia, in Australia, for it to be glossified into ready legend, with a shimmer of unbelievability hanging like mist over the feat still. The mighty effort of the Indian fast bowlers, running Aussie batsmen ragged, has left an indelible imprint in the mind’s eye, and so has Cheteshwar Puj­ara’s indomitability and Rishabh Pant’s untrammelled audacity. The 2­1 victory was the sweeter for its being the first ever registered on Aussie soil, in the 12th attempt over 71 years, since that first series was played in 1947­-48 against Brad man’s ‘invincibles’. Those three horsemen that pulled India’s victory chariot, the untir­ing quicks Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Shami and Ishant Sharma, planned, then executed, the oppo­nents’ downfall in various cor­ners of foreign fields. Their skipper, Virat Kohli, would only need to give rough directions.

Dry-as-dust cricket statistics are inimical to a real, freshly cut-grass feel of the game, but do provide frames for us to focus on. Like this unambiguous statement of dominance: of the 70 Australian wickets that fell, the four pacers bagged as many as 50, that is, 71.43 per cent, while the four spinners shared 20 scalps. The fourth pacer, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, didn’t get a single Test. Treat this series as a culmination if you will, but they have been an elemental force for some time. If they elicited muted plaudits, it was because India lost, particularly in England and South Africa in 2017-18.