Bengaluru: “It’s your journey that has taken you to Ranchi, 200 km from your village Baddi.”

This is what then India coach Rahul Dravid told Akash Deep while presenting the Test cap to the debutant pacer in the Ranchi Test against England. If Akash Deep’s journey is moving – leaving his home in Bihar for West Bengal on the pretext of work and reaching the international stage – his bowling that has got him here is unspectacular. Disciplined lines, meticulous control over lengths and the attitude of a workhorse, Akash Deep appears set for his first overseas tour. That happens to be a Test series in Australia. Eight wickets in three Tests don’t fully explain, why.

Akash Deep’s story is not dissimilar to that of Mohammed Shami, who moved from Amroha, Uttar Pradesh to West Bengal and was noticed there. To be able to fill in for Shami, who appears set to miss the Australia series, certainly the first part, will be a challenge. Jasprit Bumrah will lead the attack Down Under and can make all the adjustments. But Akash Deep’s early steps have also been smooth and assuring.

“One thing that will be key in Australia is consistency,” said Paras Mhambrey, the previous India bowling coach told HT recently. “The South African pitches have got so much more juice for the seamers while Australian pitches have become flatter. Combined with the hot weather, the binding on the pitches, the clay content, Kookaburra ball, you need to have bowlers who can bowl longer spells with control. If you can’t control the game, you are playing catch-up.”

It’s a trait Mohammed Siraj showed he possessed when he burst on the international scene in Australia in the 2020-21 series. Akash Deep has shown the same ability in the three Tests he has played at home. He showed it during his nine-wicket haul in the recent Duleep Trophy too, where he got the prized scalps of Shubman Gill and Rishabh Pant.

Bowling long spells demands control over lengths, something Akash Deep does very well. “He is someone we call in Marathi ‘picklela amba’ (fully developed). He must have bowled on every surface in domestic cricket...on Eden’s black soil pitch, on flatter decks. When you have gone through the grind, you know how much your body can do,” said Mhambrey. “It’s a lot like Boom (Bumrah) and people forget how much first-class cricket he had played before playing Tests. Akash Deep knows what his breaking point is.”

The other thing the 27-year-old can do very well is bowl around the wicket to the left-hander. It is something Ishant Sharma learnt to master and Siraj does a lot using his wobble-seam ball.

“It’s because Akash Deep knows to take the ball away from the left-handers. When you have control bowling around the wicket, you can challenge the batter. He can shape the ball in as well (as seen in the recent Tests against Bangladesh),” he added.

“Bowling around the wicket is not easy for everyone, because technically speaking, there is a slight adjustment in terms of the body and the wrist to have that fine balance of either landing it on the seam in that position or dropping it completely. That comes from practice. Akash Deep knows to play with the angles, which makes him effective. And he can bowl in the high 130s (kph). If he gets the conditions, by hitting the lengths consistently, he can be a handful.”

While on the face of it, Shami and Akash Deep may have similar bowling traits, Mhambrey calls Shami an outlier with his rare ability to have a dead upright seam. The coach believes what Akash Deep can do is work well in tandem with Bumrah.

What remains to be seen is the set of pacers that the Indian selectors pick as a point of difference in the bowling attack. Will there be room for a left-arm pacer to bring Ravichandran Ashwin’s off-spin in the game? Would Shardul Thakur still be trusted for his all-round skills or will it be someone else? Do they think Mayank Yadav is ready to be unleashed? One thing we can be sure of is Akash Deep will be there. Not because he is spectacular, but because he has the control.

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