India's Ishant Sharma leaves the field during the fifth cricket test match against England at the Oval cricket ground, London August 17, 2014.
India's Ishant Sharma leaves the field during the fifth cricket test match against England at the Oval cricket ground, London August 17, 2014. Philip Brown

Indian Cricket Teams over the years have produced some very good quality spinners. Mostly they have wreaked havoc in their own home conditions and sometimes, teams in general and batsmen in particular, outside the sub-continent have had to plan for them.

Not anymore, as for the first time ever the Indian Cricket Team are travelling to Australia with five quality fast bowlers with four of them capable of bowling at more than 140 km/h for lengthy periods of time. What does that mean for the Australian Cricket Team? Well, there is not a single answer available. Mostly for the Australian batsmen who have been born and bred on fast and bouncy wickets it should not pose too much of a problem for them in general.

The more important issue will be how the Indian bowlers respond to this challenge. Ishant Sharma is the most experienced of the lot and in the past he has produced some very memorable spells especially one remembers him bowling to the then Australian captain Ricky Ponting and successfully so. Umesh Yadav and Mohammed Shami are similar types of bowlers who hit the deck hard and with pace; ideal type of bowlers to extract maximum benefit from the pitches in Australia. Varun Aaron is the youngest of the quartet so has a lot of pace to burn.

The fifth quick bowler that India is taking Down Under is Bhuvneshwar Kumar. He is a very fine new ball bowler with good control and the ability to swing the ball both ways. Obviously all of them will not be picked for the same Test Match but any three ought to do a good job. Now with an ankle injury Bhuvneshwar Kumar is out of the first two Test Matches anyway.

To add to this formidable attack India has a thinking off-spinner in Ravichandran Ashwin and a new leg-spinner to the international scene in Karn Sharma. With Ishant Sharma, Mohammed Shami and Varun Aaron along with debutant Karn Sharma being chosen for the first Test Match it will be India's most sprightly attack in Australia, definitely in the recent past, if not forever.