Indian ODI bowling from 2000-2010 - Underrated?

KP From India

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Indian test bowling evolved only after 2015 with good pacers coming in both in quality and quantity.
But Indian ODI unit didnt get much recognition from 2000-2011.
We had Shrinath for first 3 years, performed nicely except WC final.
We had Zaheer bowling terrific yorkers and hitting peak from 2006-2011. 2011 WC was a pinnacle.
Ajit Agarkar, expensive but got wickts when needed, bowled some unplayables to the likes of Jayasuriya, Kallis etc. in swinging conditions.
Irfan Pathan, high quality pacer, usually getting at least 2 wickets in full spell when some swing was on offer. 173 wickets with good average.
Ashish Nehra, very underrated, especially innswinging conditions, difficult to score off. Save India from humiliation of being chased down 349 in Pakistan. Spell vs Eng in 2003 WC was a great lesson of swing bowling. Bowled well in 2011 WC in limited opportunities.
Guys like Pravin Kumar, Munaf Patel were more than helpful and won us a tri series in Aus and also few matches from losing performance vs SA.
In spin there were Kumble and Bhajji(both rarely played together) and rarely went over 40 runs in a spell picking 1 or 2 wickets.
Most underrated thing about that attack was a stock of part time bowling.
We had Sachin, Saurav, Sehvag, Yuvraj etc. depending on the conditions. We even had Raina, Yousuf Pathan etc. Part time bowling alone would have produced 350+ wickets in those 10 years, even Aus and SA didnt have that luxary.
Discuss.
 
Indian bowlers in ODI's from Jan 2000 to Dec 2010
Player Span Mat Wkts Avg Econ SR 4W
J Srinath 2000-2003 53 78 27.67 4.73 35 5
AB Agarkar 2000-2007 150 215 28.33 5 33.9 7
IK Pathan 2004-2009 107 152 29.9 5.25 34.1 4
Z Khan 2000-2010 171 230 30.67 4.94 37.2 7
A Nehra 2001-2010 110 149 30.9 5.17 35.8 5
I Sharma 2007-2010 45 63 30.92 5.74 32.3 3
MM Patel 2006-2010 49 54 31.92 4.76 40.2 1
S Sreesanth 2005-2010 51 75 32.04 6.01 31.9 2
Harbhajan Singh 2001-2010 197 220 33.44 4.3 46.6 2
P Kumar 2007-2010 48 57 33.57 5.07 39.7 3
RP Singh 2005-2009 55 65 33.86 5.42 37.4 2
A Kumble 2000-2007 85 90 38.21 4.58 49.9 2
Yuvraj Singh 2000-2010 257 88 39.45 5.02 47.1 2
V Sehwag 2000-2010 217 90 39.61 5.2 45.6 1
SC Ganguly 2000-2007 182 56 39.66 5.13 46.3 0
SR Tendulkar 2000-2010 213 76 40.65 5.32 45.8 2
 
Even Ishant ans Sreesanth done a decent job. Wow!! How many pace bowling options we had back then.
 
Since the turn of millennium, we have produced top quality ODI bowlers.

Bumrah Avg 24, Econ 4.5(in this era)
Shami Avg 25
Zaheer Avg 29 ( a WC winner)
Agarkar Avg 27
Kuldeep Avg 26
Chahal Avg 25

Since 2000, our ODI bowling attack is next only to Australia.
 
Since the turn of millennium, we have produced top quality ODI bowlers.

Bumrah Avg 24, Econ 4.5(in this era)
Shami Avg 25
Zaheer Avg 29 ( a WC winner)
Agarkar Avg 27
Kuldeep Avg 26
Chahal Avg 25

Since 2000, our ODI bowling attack is next only to Australia.



Lolwut ?

South Africa, Pakistan and even Sri Lanka had better (sometimes far better) bowling attacks than us for considerably long periods of time.

I don't think I'll need averages and stats to prove that.
 
Even Ishant ans Sreesanth done a decent job. Wow!! How many pace bowling options we had back then.

lot of decent to good options but no truly world class option

in the mid 2000s and onwards til 2010 or so india had an assembly line of mid-tier fast bowlers who would do well for a season or two, then have a fall and disappear.

Ofcourse some like Nehra and Zaheer had extended spells and did well but many just played a handful of games, did ok and disappeared.

From the top of my mind these names come to me:

Agarkar, Irfan Pathan, Nehra, Balaji, Vinay Kumar, Sreesanth, Joginder Sharma, Ishant Sharma, RP Singh, Zaheer, Praveen Kumar, Munaf Patel, Yadav, Dinda, Gony, Vinay Kumar, Mithun, Unadakat, VRV Singh

Im sure there were quite a few 2000 to 2004 as well when I didnt really keep as much tab of Indian cricket

but the point of it is thato n the face of it; it seems India had great depth but in reality these were all mediocre options. It was a running joke that the shelf life on an indian pacer was 2 years

India just handed out caps to pacers like candy those days
 
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Lolwut ?

South Africa, Pakistan and even Sri Lanka had better (sometimes far better) bowling attacks than us for considerably long periods of time.

I don't think I'll need averages and stats to prove that.

How brother? This is about ODIs. Steyn was average ODI bowler and so is Rabada.
 
lot of decent to good options but no truly world class option

in the mid 2000s and onwards til 2010 or so india had an assembly line of mid-tier fast bowlers who would do well for a season or two, then have a fall and disappear.

Ofcourse some like Nehra and Zaheer had extended spells and did well but many just played a handful of games, did ok and disappeared.

From the top of my mind these names come to me:

Agarkar, Irfan Pathan, Nehra, Balaji, Vinay Kumar, Sreesanth, Joginder Sharma, Ishant Sharma, RP Singh, Zaheer, Praveen Kumar, Munaf Patel, Yadav, Dinda, Gony, Vinay Kumar, Mithun, Unadakat, VRV Singh

Im sure there were quite a few 2000 to 2004 as well when I didnt really keep as much tab of Indian cricket

but the point of it is thato n the face of it; it seems India had great depth but in reality these were all mediocre options. It was a running joke that the shelf life on an indian pacer was 2 years

India just handed out caps to pacers like candy those days

In ODIs, only Zaheer, Agarkar and for short period, Pathan was good. Zaheer was excellent from late 00s to early 10s though.
 
Sri Lanka. Surely not. They had Vaas and Malinga. Thats it. Next best bowler Kulasakera had 184 wickets in 184 matches with not many winning spells.
.
 
Only Aus and Sa were better.
SL surely no, there were only Vaas and Malinga. Pakistan had Shoib(injured 60/100 matches), Sami(decent), Rana Naved(good). Other bowlers dont have a sample size to judge.
 
Sri Lanka. Surely not. They had Vaas and Malinga. Thats it. Next best bowler Kulasakera had 184 wickets in 184 matches with not many winning spells.
.


Sri Lankan attack in the mid late 2000s was better than ours. Malinga, Murali, Vaas, Fernando, Kulasekara etc as a unit were comfortably better than Zak, Praveen, Harbhajan, Munaf etc.
 
Malinga and Vaas barely played together for 3 years and 60-70 odd matches.Malinga peaked after Vaas was about to hang his boots.
Murali didnt deliever in big matches in 2000-2010 especially away.
Fernando, not upto the mark.
Kula, an okeish bowler.
No reserved pacers and spinners.
 
If Sl were better, why didn't they won a series in Aus(India won 2008), Good Sa series(Ind did well 2010), thrash Nz away(Ind 5-1in 2009), beat Sl itself in 2008, 2009(Murali, Vaas, Mendis notwithstanding). Also remember Ind had higher chances chasing than Sl defending 227 in Champions trophy 2002 finals, won series vs Sa at neutral venue(2007 by 2-1), beat Pak in 2004, 2006 series away.Entire pace lot bowled beautifully in 2003 world cup with the exception of final.
Why could't Sl bowlers pull these things off if they were better
 
I don’t think it’s underrated at all. Was good enough to get India to WC Final 2003, win in 2011, and win a host of good ODI games in between.
 
In fact few very good away series and not just games
2002 C.T., bowlers done their part
2003 WC
2004 Pak series
2006 Pak series
2008 Sl series
2009 Sl series(near whitewash)
2007 Sa(neutral venue)
2008 CB series
2009 Nz series
2010 Asia cup
Bowled beautifully in Nz 2002, batsmen undone good work.
 
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