Akash Deep hits the nail on the head, fits perfectly

A five-man attack that bowls out the opposition in 47.1 overs is bound to have at least one unused bowler. Akash Deep was that bowler at Chepauk on Friday, having to bowl just five overs in the two spells before the lunch break. But those 30 balls were enough to make his presence felt and break the back of the opposition in the top order.

In many ways, this ability to make an immediate impact has been the story of Akash Deep’s short Test career. In the previous Test – his debut – he had the difficult task of replacing the irreplaceable Jasprit Bumrah, who needed a breather after struggling in three consecutive Tests against England. Deep belied his inexperience at this level against a trigger-happy opposition, dismissing Zak Crawley, Ben Duckett and Ollie Pope in the first session of the Test match.

Still, there was no guarantee that a second Test match would take place, and Deep, fresh from dengue fever, was thrown into a sort of elimination chamber with the other fast-bowling prospects in a one-off Duleep Trophy match that would determine the identity of India’s reserve pacers for the season. In that match, he took 9 for 118 and scored 43 in the second innings, removing any doubts about his selection.

Here, on a mild Chennai morning, with batting conditions gradually becoming easier, Deep struck two decisive drives off successive balls in his second over to ensure that Bangladesh would not be able to capitalise on the opportunity when the sun shone later. He was brought into the attack 10 minutes before the lunch break, after two short three-over bursts for Bumrah and Mohammed Siraj. Five of his first six deliveries were comfortably left alone by the two left-handers, Zakir Hasan and Najmul Hossain Shanto.

Starting his second and final over of the session, Deep calibrated his radar around the stumps to guide a delivery to the fuller side of a good length, driving it to the seam, swerving Zakir’s attempted drive and flattening middle stump. In came former Bangladesh captain Mominul Haque. In almost identical fashion, Deep angled the next ball to the left-hander from wide, causing the ball to skim past the inside edge and knock off the off-stump after grazing the front pad. The screen captured the enthusiastic clapping of new bowling coach Morne Morkel, who had raved about the depth of India’s bowling talent pool since joining the team and was now getting a chance to see it for himself in a Test match.

In Cricbuzz studios, legendary Indian fast bowler Zaheer Khan, who shot to fame after moving Steve Waugh’s stumps in Nairobi, offered an analysis of Deep’s skills. “He keeps it simple. Just like Siraj has progressed and learnt quickly in international cricket, Akash seems to be doing the same,” Zaheer told Cricbuzz Chatter. “He tries to attack the stumps, which is what a fast bowler has to do in these conditions. And he hits those three-quarter lengths, as they say, to get help from the seam. Here, all the fast bowlers try to hit the top of the stumps. In Test cricket, whenever you force the batsmen to play the ball, you give yourself a lot more opportunities (to take wickets).”

All this is also the analysis that has accompanied another Bengal pacer who has been a devilishly difficult bowler to handle in these conditions. Mohammed Shami has 76 wickets from 21 home Tests. Twenty-nine of those wickets have been bowled, which is 38 per cent of his total wickets. The scalps of Zakir and Mominul have taken Deep’s tally to 42 from 118 first-class wickets, including three of his five international wickets so far, which is almost an identical 36 per cent of his total wickets.

While Shami’s natural length may be slightly shorter than Deep’s by a good margin, both bowlers are naturally sliders, which makes them seem faster than the speed gun would suggest. While Shami beats batsmen with a two-way movement, Deep is an adept inswinger to the right-handers and can bowl the one who holds the line. In the case of both, it is rarely a flamboyant banana swing, and more often the movement is off the pitch, thanks to the wonderfully vertical positions of the seam. This is more difficult to adjust than the swing.

All this is not to pit India’s all-time greats against old Deep’s two-Test. However, thanks to the rapid progress of the “Shami-lite”, India have been able to somewhat mitigate the effects of losing a bowler of Shami’s qualities for almost a year. It’s not a subject that gets discussed often during home Tests, but apart from batting and spin, fast bowling has also been in a quiet state of transition since India decided to move on from Ishant Sharma and Umesh Yadav.

It is interesting that Zaheer likened Siraj to a quick learner. Because since Siraj made his Test debut and quickly rose to the regular game in 2020, India have given Test debuts to five fast bowlers – Navdeep Saini, T. Natarajan, Mukesh Kumar, Prasidh Krishna and Akash Deep. Of these, only Mukesh, Saini and Akash have played more than one Test. And of these three, only Deep has fit in perfectly.

He will have different challenges during this home season, with India resting and rotating their fast bowlers in preparation for Australia. He will even play in a two-man attack and will have to bowl longer or be used in similarly short bursts, sometimes with a softer, older ball, with the spinners doing most of the heavy lifting. India will be hoping he continues to hit those spots and make that impact.