Kolkata, Nov 17 (IANS) Just-retired India pacer Ashish Nehra feels India need five-six fast bowlers in their ranks for the upcoming away tours in 2018.

“Ishant (Sharma) is sitting out. Jasprit Bumrah is out, so we have good pool of four, five, six fast bowlers. The kind of cricket we are playing in the upcoming months we need five six fast bowlers in Test cricket as well as other two formats also. And we have that,” Nehra told reporters on the sidelines of India’s series against Sri Lanka at the Eden Gardens here on Friday.

In January, India tour South Africa for three Tests, six One-Day Internationals and three T20s.

In the summer, Virat Kohli and Co travel to England followed by Australia from November-January 2019.

Nehra opined that the green top at Eden is being talked about more than the overcast conditions with rain interrupting play more often than not.

Only one hour of play was possible on the opening day and lunch had to be called on early on the second day.

“The wicket is good but it’s all because of the rain that there is more moisture. Other than that, after one or two overs it would have been a very good wicket,” Nehra said.

“There is seam and swing and bounce and it is happening because of the rain. Yes I haven’t seen..once Dale Steyn pick 5-6 wickets..I think it was in Hyderabad…Nagpur ya, that time it was quite green. But here it’s not really swing but more of seam. The bowler himself doesn’t know it’s coming in so how the batsmen will know?

“You can’t pick anything from the hand. Like you see Virat’s dismissal, Lakmal bowled outswing but it pitched and it came in. So it’s difficult for the bowlers as well,” he added.

The left-arm medium-pacer said if India would have won the toss and elected to field first, they would had Sri Lanka on the mat.

“If India would have won the toss, who knows with the level of cricket knowledge I have…we would have got Sri Lanka out for 50-60 runs.”

Nehra felt if the conditions are like the same as Eden in South Africa, India would be at an advantage.

“In South Africa, with the Kookaburra ball you will get more bounce rather than seam and swing. In Johannesburg we won as the conditions were great. But in South Africa if conditions are like this it’s good for us.”

–IANS
dm/gau/vm