Former India fast-bowling coach Joe Dawes doubts whether India can replicate the devastating impact Wahab Riaz had when they play Australia in Thursday's semi-final and believes they will be confronted with the psychological baggage of their winless summer against the co-hosts.
Riaz, 29, is still the talk of the World Cup despite Pakistan being on their way home, owing to a memorable spell in Adelaide that took care of Dave Warner and Michael Clarke and had Shane Watson almost doing the limbo as he reared away from the tournament's most menacing short-pitched bowling to date.
The Indians will have noted the vulnerability of the Australian batsmen in their quarter-final but while their pacemen, Umesh Yadav, Mohammed Shami and Mohit Sharma, have improved out of sight after a dismal first two months in Australia in the summer they don't have a Riaz clone in their line-up and as such are unlikely to be able to able to cause the mayhem the left-armer from Lahore wreaked with his angles last Friday night.
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"No doubt they'll try that. [But] around the wicket is going to be a
bit harder than just having a left-hander there," said Dawes, who was
cut as Indian bowling coach ahead of the Australian tour last October.
"They will have watched that and will give it a go, and Umesh has
definitely got the pace to do it but he's not an overly tall man so that
sort of changes the trajectory and the bounce. The left-armers are
proving to be quite difficult throughout the whole tournament, aren't
they?"They'll be doing their homework and will give it a crack. Fletch [India's coach Duncan Fletcher] is a pretty astute coach, he'll be watching all of these things and he'll look to try and bring that in somewhere and give it a whirl. But the left-hander is a big advantage and that's where the Indians don't have anyone with real pace, or any left-hand bowlers here at the moment."
Shami has 17 wickets at an average of 13 in the World Cup to be third behind left-armers Trent Boult (New Zealand) and Mitchell Starc (Australia) on the wicket tally. After four months in the country, his success is an indication that India have finally found their range but after being unable to register a win against Australia throughout a Test series and tri-series campaign there are undeniable mental hurdles to overcome, according to Dawes.
"During the Test series they really struggled for consistency," the Queenslander said. "They bowled some good balls, then really let the pressure off. It looks like maybe adapting to the conditions and getting their lengths right they've really improved their consistency so they're building pressure now.
"M.S. [Dhoni] leads them well in one-day cricket and they've sort of got on a roll. I still think under pressure they'll be tested. I'm not sure they've been tested a great deal under pressure yet.
"That's going to be the real challenge in a semi-final against Australia, where there is that little bit of no doubt psychological damage over the summer where they've been hit around a bit.
"I think they have got the tools to hurt any side, it's just whether or not they can be consistent enough to put the ball in the right area on the day, which they have and haven't done throughout the summer."
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