India's need for speed: Sensational Shami or buoyant Bumrah?

IND vs AUS ICC World Cup 2023 final As India takes on Australia in the IND vs AUS ICC World Cup 2023 final at Ahmedabads Narendra Modi Stadium on Sunday with eyes on the trophy a pertinent question that the Men In Blue will be ponder is with whom should they open their bowling against the mighty batting lineupThe final presents a chance for India to make the most of home conditions to lift the trophy for the third time and avenge the heartbreaking loss to the Invincible Aussies of the 2000s in the 2003 Cricket World CupFor India to lift the trophy after 12 years it would be of utmost importance that each and every player to give their everything on the field A lot depends on how Indias bowling unit consisting of pace trio of Jasprit Bumrah Mohammed Shami and Mohammed Siraj and spinners Kuldeep Yadav and Ravindra Jadeja will performIndian bowlers have been sensational in the tournament so far Be it restricting the team to the modest total while bowling first or defending a chaseable total delivering early wickets in powerplay or putting brakes on runs in death overs Men in Blue has done it all with the ballBut the key question is will India change who gets to open the bowling based on the form and aggression of Australian openers Travis Head and David WarnerPacer Jasprit Bumrah who usually opens the bowling has not been very effective against Warner In 14 innings that these two have faced off Bumrah has given away 117 runs in 130 balls While 71 of these balls have been dot balls Bumrah has not dismissed the opener ever in ODIsAlso ReadFort Motera ready for cricketrsquos biggest battleWarner has hit Bumrah for 16 fours but no sixes hence 64 of his runs have come in boundaries against Bumrah Rest Warner has relied on strike rotation mostly singlesAgainst Travis Bumrah has played in three innings Bumrah has conceded 14 runs in 12 balls with two fours Six of these balls have been dot balls Bumrah has fared way better against Head but the form this opener is in there is no guarantee that the pacer will be spared or notOn the other hand Shami has been a nightmare for battersIn his WC run this year Shami has bowled 52 deliveries to leftarm batters He has conceded just 32 runs against themShamis eight out of his 23 wickets in the tournament have been lefthanders The bowler has claimed wickets of Rachin Ravindra Mitchell Santner and Devon Conway of New Zealand Ben Stokes and Moeen Ali of England Charith Asalanka of Sri Lanka among the lefthanded battersThe best part is that Shami has been extremely cheap against leftarm batters averaging only four runs per wicket The pressure he has put on batters is given full justice by these numbersAlso ReadA bitter pill to swallowIn six WC 2023 games Shami has taken 23 wickets at an average of 913 and a strike rate of 1091 His best figures are 757 He is the highest wickettaker in the tournament so farBumrah has been superb in the tournament so far having taken 18 wickets in 10 wickets at an average of 1833 and a strike rate of over 27 with best figures of 439 Though Bumrah is the fifthhighest wickettaker in the tournament and Shami looks better statistically the pressure exerted by Bumrah restricts the opponents run flow and allows other bowlers to thrive as wellPredicted squadsIndia Rohit Sharma C Shubman Gill Virat Kohli Shreyas Iyer KL Rahul Ravindra Jadeja Shardul Thakur Jasprit Bumrah Mohammed Siraj Kuldeep Yadav Mohammed Shami Ravichandran Ashwin Ishan Kishan Prasidh Krishna Suryakumar YadavAustralia Pat Cummins C Steve Smith Alex Carey Josh Inglis Sean Abbott Cameron Green Josh Hazlewood Travis Head Marnus Labuschagne Mitch Marsh Glenn Maxwell Marcus Stoinis David Warner Adam Zampa Mitchell StarcWith agency inputs