Fifth day struggle for wickets triggers fifth bowler debate

NEW DELHI: Test cricket probably needs its ‘Day 5’ more than anything else to survive and lure eyeballs back to the game. The wicked fifth day pitch, endurance of players and game sense of the two teams - all variable aspects of the game - come together as the pressure of deadline starts playing on the minds.

Decisions taken before the start on the first morning become important as the match stretches into the mandatory overs. When Virat Kohli walked up to shake hands with Roshen Silva and Niroshan Dickwella at the Kotla, knowing it was futile to have his four bowlers slog further, the mind went back to the choices made by both teams going into the match.

Kohli deviated from his five-bowler theory in this series and Sri Lanka decided to add meat to their batting line-up by playing an extra batsman in Silva. The fifth bowler, during Kohli’s reign, has only catalyzed what seemed like inevitable results on comforting pitches in the last 18 months. Test matches have barely managed to reach Day 5. The grind of the deciding day, thus, kept eluding his men. “Sometimes you need to try out a few options. We are going overseas. We have to wait and see what happens once we reach South Africa and take a call there,” Cheteshwar Pujara said.

What could not be ignored was that R Ashwin - who has sprinted to 300 Test wickets - failed to be effective being in fine rhythm. Ravindra Jadeja rolled his arm right through the day, trying to extract any bit of spice hidden in the pitch.

The fatigued shoulders of the bowlers cried for a fifth bowler. Kohli and Murali Vijay did send down an over each but that was just to keep Ishant Sharma and Mohammed Shami that tad bit fresher for the second new ball.

Some might argue that even-bounced, well-paced Kotla pitch put it beyond the Indian bowlers. Pujara, for one, offered that argument after the draw on Wednesday. He cited the lack of assistance the two spinners got from the pitch on fourth and five days. “In India, on any other pitch, Day 5 will see a lot more assistance,” Pujara said.

But Day 5 did throw up a point to ponder. The Indian spinners are not likely to find any greater assistance on the last days of the Test matches in South Africa than what they had to make do with here at Kotla. Ashwin will recall his ordeal on one such Day 5 during his last trip to the same country.

The last leg of preparations is done with. The fifth day and the fifth bowler issues are likely to dominate discussions when the team management gets down to finalising the playing XI in South Africa.