The fast and the fickle
A stable fast bowling attack continues to elude Team India. When will the search end?
The selection of Dhawal Kulkarni for the New Zealand tour seems just reward for the 20-year-old’s performance in his first Ranji season, in which he topped the bowling list with 42 wickets. What’s more, in the first season itself he became Mumbai’s pace spearhead. A more heartwarming story is of L Balaji, who was our best seamer when Pakistan toured India in 2004, but spent the following years battling with injury.
So Kulkarni has been added to the pot of pace bowlers that selectors have been stirring vigorously in the last few years. Less than two months ago, Kulkarni was not among the 36 players handed BCCI contracts. The list included Rudra Pratap Singh and S Sreesanth, neither of whom is touring New Zealand. The status of both Singh and Sreesanth is a grey area. Sreesanth recently played three domestic first-class matches, taking 15 wickets, to prove his fitness. RP’s status is not known.
The squad has Munaf Patel, whose fitness as usual is a question mark. He returned midway from Sri Lanka — Balaji was flown in to take his place — but is back in the team for New Zealand.
On the face of it, you would think we have a healthy assembly line of fast bowlers, affording us the luxury of chopping, changing and rotating them. When one breaks down, another steps forward to take his place. But the truth is far from it.
There is only Zaheer, who looks sure to play most matches, and he took about six years or so after his debut to become a fixture. Ishant is showing signs of maturing, but you never can tell. It was not so long ago that Pakistan’s Mohammed Asif looked the likeliest heir to Glen McGrath. And look where he is today.
But why single out Asif? Five-and-a-half years ago, when Irfan Pathan made his international debut, he was looked upon as a natural heir to Wasim Akram. Since then, Pathan has played only 29 Tests, taking 100 wickets.
When Munaf Patel first played for India, against England at Mohali, we thought we had found a truly nippy bowler to fill in Javagal Srinath’s shoes. Since then, Patel has played no more than nine Tests, in which he has taken 28 wickets.
When Pankaj Singh was drafted in for the tour to Australia, he restored our faith in domestic cricket. His selection proved that even lesser teams like Rajasthan were watched and if you did well for them you could play for the country. But selection in the tour party is one thing, selection in the playing 11 quite another. Singh has yet to play a Test.
Sreesanth won us a Test in South Africa, our first, and captured kids’ imagination by thrusting his hips on the pitch after hitting Andre Nel, who had been sledging him, for a six. But, in three years since debuting against England, he has all of 14 Tests against his name, in which he has taken a reasonable 50 wickets. R P Singh has played one less, claiming 40. Before this bunch came, there was Ajit Agarkar, who had supposedly answered our prayers for an all-rounder. In his time, he was the fastest to 50 ODI wickets, but his career has moved in fits and starts. Having made his debut in October 1998, he remains active on the circuit, but has played only 26 Tests.
As Zaheer pointed out recently, the more you bowl, the better your rhythm, and the chances of you getting injured get diminished. But, clearly, we have failed to have a stable fast-bowling attack. So what are we playing at?