New Delhi, Jan. 19 -- In October last year, when New Zealand came visiting for a Test series in India, captain Rohit Sharma spoke about the necessity to create a strong pool of fast bowlers. "We want to create a bench strength where tomorrow if anything happens to anyone, we are not worried, and we don't want to be worried or too heavily reliant on a few individuals. That's not the right thing to do," Sharma said a day before the first Test in Bengaluru.

"It's not about three or four options. We want to try and do that like, you know, when it comes to batting, there are a lot of options. We want to create the same with the bowlers as well."

To put his words into action, the team included fast bowlers Harshit Rana and Mayank Yadav ...