Cricket: India is facing a double-edged sword, fourth pacer or batting all-rounder, will Rohit Sharma show the courage to go with 5 bowlers?

There was a time when India used to play Test matches with 5 specialist bowlers. The team won matches from England to South Africa with this combination. But on the Australia tour, Team India is playing with 4 bowlers and one batting all-rounder. Despite this, it has been restricted to less than 200 runs in 3 out of 6 innings. India won one match against Australia, lost one and one was drawn. The reason for India's defeat was poor batting as well as weak bowling. Bowling coach Morne Morkel admitted that bowling from the 30th to 50th over is proving to be a weak link. In such a situation, the question is whether Rohit Sharma will show the courage to choose a fourth pacer instead of a batting all-rounder.

The fourth Test between India and Australia is to be played in Melbourne from December 26. India has won the last 2 matches here and drawn one. Australia has not been able to beat India here for 10 years. So the memories are with India. But this does not necessarily apply to the pitch as well. The pitch at MCG (Melbourne Cricket Ground) has good grass. It is the same pitch as it has been in the past years. A pitch that always helps fast bowlers.

Nitish bowled 27 overs in 3 matches

The Indian bowling lineup currently has 3 specialist bowlers and 2 batting all-rounders. The way Nitish Kumar Reddy has batted, it is clear that he has the potential to become a specialist batsman. He has repeatedly pulled the Indian batting out of trouble. But it is also true that his bowling is not such that he can be used as the fourth pacer. India has bowled 336 overs on this tour, out of which Nitish Reddy has bowled only 27 overs. He gave runs at an average of 4.55 in these overs and took 3 wickets.

Jadeja's batting record abroad is excellent
The other all-rounder is Ravindra Jadeja. Hardly anyone doubts his ability. Jadeja is also among the Indian batsmen who have scored the most runs abroad in the last 4 years. But he has never been considered a dangerous or match-winning bowler like Ravichandran Ashwin. It is also possible that if the team has to go with a spinner (not a batting all-rounder), then it may go with Washington Sundar instead of Jadeja. Despite the fact that he has 85 wickets in the Border Gavaskar Trophy.

Prasidh Krishna's claim is strong

India needs a bowling all-rounder (Washington Sundar) or a pacer to strengthen the bowling which is getting weak between the 30th and 50th overs. This pacer can be Prasiddh Krishna, who took 6 wickets against Australia in Melbourne a few days ago. Prasiddh Krishna is a seam bowler and there will be help for such bowlers at the MCG.

Rohit Sharma will have to take a tough decision

Now it is up to captain Rohit Sharma to decide whether he will think about strengthening the bowling or go with Nitish Reddy to help the sagging batting. Talking about batting, not only Rohit is struggling to score runs, but Virat Kohli and Yashasvi Jaiswal have also not been able to play big innings after scoring centuries. Shubman Gill is starting well, but is unable to take it forward. Ultimately, trust is placed on only two batsmen. First KL Rahul and second Ravindra Jadeja. The third is the eccentric Rishabh Pant, from whose batting expectations can be made, but trusting him may prove to be costly.