Bengaluru As India approach the five-Test tour of Australia, they don’t want to be in a position they found themselves in before the Gabba game in 2021. The win in Brisbane, epoch making as it was, was achieved with a rookie pace attack with all the frontline bowlers out injured.

India skipper Rohit Sharma said on Tuesday that they are trying to create “eight or nine options and not just three or four” for the Australia series starting on November 22. On the 2020-21 tour, Mohammed Shami (hand fracture), then Umesh Yadav and later Jasprit Bumrah (both injured) went out, leaving young Mohammed Siraj to lead the pace attack at the Gabba, backed by Navdeep Saini, T Natarajan and Shardul Thakur.

Bumrah is at the top of his game, Siraj is maturing, and Akash Deep has emerged as someone who can bowl long spells. But Shami’s rehabilitation hasn’t gone to plan.

“It’s pretty difficult for us to take a call on him for Australia. He recently had a setback… swelling in his knee, which was quite unusual while he was in the process of getting fit and close to 100 percent. That put him back a little bit, so he had to start afresh,” Rohit said.

Shami continues his rehab at Bengaluru’s National Cricket Academy. “We are keeping our fingers crossed. We want him to be 100 percent fit. We don’t want to bring an undercooked Shami to Australia,” he said. “He’s not played cricket for a year and it is quite tough for a fast bowler, to have missed so much of cricket and suddenly come out and be at his best. It is not ideal.”

Rohit said a green signal would only be given to Shami once he proves his match fitness over a couple of games. Given his quality, that may even mean him joining the squad in the middle of the series.

While Shami, Akash Deep and Siraj can be relentless, India will also be looking at a fast bowler with a point of difference to team up with Bumrah. The most exciting prospect at the moment is Delhi speedster Mayank Yadav. After playing three T20Is on the bounce, he’s with the India team as a travelling reserve for the New Zealand series. “Mayank has shown what he can do. But we just want to be very careful with him. He’s had a lot of injuries in the past. So, don’t want to progress him rapidly.”

While Mayank looks set to take the flight to Australia, it’s more likely that it will be as a travelling reserve to begin with. His red-ball workload is being gradually raised. If he were to make rapid progress, the express pacer could be unleashed as a surprise weapon at some point on the tour.

Also in India’s plan is Karnataka pacer Prasidh Krishna, who can hit the deck and is suitable for Australian pitches. Krishna made his Test debut on the 2023 South Africa tour. But the injury-prone pacer suffered a fresh setback in last week’s Ranji Trophy tie against Madhya Pradesh and his fitness is being monitored.

India also seem keen to find an alternative to Shardul Thakur for the all-rounder’s role. The Mumbai player hasn’t been at his best on away tours of late and only recently recovered from injury. Nitish Kumar Reddy, who has impressed in white-ball cricket, is being seen as a possible replacement. Harshit Rana too, although he is better known as a hard-hitting batter.

“I understand they’ve not played a lot of red-ball cricket, but when you see talent, you want to try and groom and bring them as close to the team as possible,” said Rohit.

“We want to create a bench strength where tomorrow if anything happens to anyone, we are not worried. Sometimes you have to fast-track someone. Nitish and Harshit are quite talented and in the future, they’re going to provide a lot of stability to the team. It’s always nice to have a chat with them to see what they think about Test cricket and their mindset.”

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