We have the best pace attack in India right now: J&K captain Paras Dogra

RAJKOT: Still soaking in his team's stunning five-wicket win over mighty Mumbai at the MCA's ground in BKC last week, Jammu & Kashmir captain Paras Dogra has hailed his team's fast bowlers as the "best in the country right now."
Troubling Mumbai's star-studded batting line-up throughout the match, J&K's impressive pace bowling troika of Yudhvir Singh, who took seven for 95 (4-31 & 3-64), Auqib Nabi (2-36 & 4-80), Umar Nazir (4-41 & 2-79) took 19 wickets between them to demolish Mumbai's batting line-up for 120 in the first innings, and restricted them to 290 in the second dig. With 29 points in six matches, Jammu & Kashmir are virtually assured of a berth in the Ranji Trophy quarterfinals.
"We've India's best pace attack at the moment. If we had Umran Malik and Rasikh Salam Dar, who are both injured, we would've been even more formidable. The pacer who sat out of this match is also very good. We've got a bunch of good fast bowlers. Even if we get a flat track at Baroda, our fast bowlers are good enough to dismiss their batsmen twice in the match," Dogra told TOI in an interview from Baroda.
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"Our pacers bowled on a good length, and they know how to move the ball both ways. They're experienced and mature by now, so I don't have to tell them much. They bowl as per the plans, the field settings, and are consistent. against Mumbai, they didn't run away from the challenge of bowling to some of India's top batters. They played with the batters' patience," Dogra said. "The fact that we reached Mumbai early and trained rigorously for 10 days at the Air India ground in Kalina helped too," he added.
Praising Yudhvir, who was named as the 'Player of the Match' against Mumbai, Dogra said, "It's just his second season, and will get better with experience. He was called up by Gautam bhaiya (India's head coach Gautam Gambhir) for the India nets last year. He bats well too."
Having taken 38 scalps in just six [email protected], with five five-wicket hauls, Auqib is the second-highest wicket-taker in the Ranji Trophy this season. "He's a high-quality pacer. He's been the spearhead of our attack. He's a very quiet guy, doesn't talk much, performs and goes home. He's such a reliable bowler-even if you wake him at night and ask him to bowl, he'll bowl in the good areas," the J&K skipper complimented.
Pointing to the depth in J&K's fast bowling resources, Dogra said, "Nazir (the impressive, six foot four inches tall fast bowler took six wickets against Mumbai in the last match, including the prized scalp of India's Test & ODI captain Rohit Sharma for just three on Day One) had taken six for 53 against Services in the first leg of the Ranji Trophy. However, we had to drop him for the next two Ranji matches, as we had to play Rasikh Salam."
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Dogra also highlighted another feature of J&K's cricketers-their ability to muscle the ball a long way. "All our pacers hit huge sixes too. I've been playing this entire season with them, and I've seen them regularly hit 100m sixes. Abdul Samad, who scored hundreds (127 off 117 balls with nine sixes & 108 off 108 balls with six sixes) against Odisha this season. On a difficult Cuttack pitch, where everyone was struggling, he was hitting the ball easily," the seasoned first-class cricketer gushed.
"J&K is overall a very good side, with a high-quality batsmen like Shubham Khajuria, Vivrant Sharma and A J&K match being telecast live, as was the case our match against Mumbai, makes a huge difference to the fortunes of our boys," Dogra said.
The 40-year-old, in his last season of a long first-class career, credited Mithun Manhas, a Jammu & Kashmir Cricket Association sub-committee member and the man in charge of the region's cricket, for J&K's surge this season. "He has made a huge difference. He has provided security to the players, and given them the assurance that they will be provided full opportunity.," Dogra said.
He reveals that he told his team "not to get carried away" after beating mighty Mumbai, as the task wasn't over yet. "We didn't celebrate the win too much. We've still got a long way to go. I told them to not carried away. Stay calm and just focus on the next match.
Even as his team is on the verge of a KO spot, Dogra is still wary of taking it easy. "We need to log at least one point, as, if we have the same number of points as Mumbai, they will go through as according to the rule, if the teams are tied on points (in case Mumbai beat Meghalaya with a bonus point), the team with more outright wins will advance to the KOs. We have one bonus win, while Mumbai have a chance of logging two," he concluded.