India spin legend Erapalli Prasanna heaps praise on the current bowling attack

Team India enjoyed a sensational 2017 under the tutelage of new skipper Virat Kohli and will aim to carry on the form to the new year as well. The Kohli-led squad is currently on a nine-series winning streak. The Men in Blue have won 37 matches across all formats in the previous year, the second most in a calendar year.

But with most of the fixtures in the new year scheduled abroad, 2018 will be a stern test of Kohli’s batting as well as his captaincy. And the upcoming South Africa tour will be a challenging one. The number one Test team will take on the second-placed Proteas in a gruelling contest to establish their dominion.

Speaking about the upcoming tour, Erapalli Prasanna, who was a part of one of the greatest bowling attacks the game has ever witnessed, termed the current Indian bowlers the best in the past seven decades. India has always been known as a batsmen-dominated team. However, of late, the nation has witnessed an upsurge in quality pacers and much of the recent success that the team enjoyed is owed to this crop of bowlers.

Prasanna opens up about probable strategies that India should apply

India’s seven-pronged bowling unit features five pacers with four quicks, who can regularly hit 140 clicks and that’s why Prasanna wants Virat Kohli to play five bowlers in the first Test against South Africa. As reported by NDTV, speaking about probable strategies Kohli should apply, the 77-year-old veteran assessed, “I have always believed five bowlers are must if you want to win the game. The same logic which applies while picking an extra batsman should apply on the bowlers.”

“Even if you play an extra batsman, only one or two would go on to make big scores. There is a possibility if the top five fail, the sixth batsmen will fail as well. Similarly, if you do pick five bowlers, more often than not you see one or two having an off day. And for a bowling line-up to be effective you need at least three bowlers to fire all the time. So picking a fifth bowler helps in this case,” added Prasanna.

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