India's fast bowling artillery
By Gokul
March 11 2006
Many years ago, India's bowling was opened by batsmen, such as Mohinder Amarnath and Sunil Gavaskar. A few years later, in the mid 70s, it got slightly better with the induction of Karsan Ghavri and Madan Lal.
March 11 2006
Many years ago, India's bowling was opened by batsmen, such as Mohinder Amarnath and Sunil Gavaskar. A few years later, in the mid 70s, it got slightly better with the induction of Karsan Ghavri and Madan Lal.
It was somewhere in the mid to late 70s when the pace revolution in India was triggered in a training camp: young Kapil Dev played Oliver Twist and asked for a better meal, citing reasons of undernourishment for a fast bowler. A cynical official-in-charge rebuffed the young quick's spirit, saying there are no fast bowlers in India.
Kapil struck back in his own typical way by bowling a fiery opening spell in his test debut against Pakistan. He hit a batsman on the helmet or head (whichever came first) with a bouncer. That was the green signal to break out of the shell of soft-medium bowling that India was known for.
Immediately thereafter, Kapil and Karsan formed a pace duo that earned new-found respect across the cricket world. Inspired by their exploits, a new breed of medium-fast to fast-medium pacemen competed for the second bowling spot after it was left vacant by Karsan Ghavri. Support came from Roger Binny, Madan Lal, Chetan Sharma, TA Sekhar, Raju Kulkarni, Sanjeev Sharma and Manoj Prabhakar.
Not too bad since the days of Sunil Gavaskar you would think, but there were more pleasant surprises to come.
The Indian team that toured Pakistan in 1989 had two young fast bowlers as understudies to Kapil and Prabhakar: Salil Ankola and Vivek Razdan. These were the first of the 6-foot+ tall pace brigade. Ankola took 6 wickets in a tour game, then Razdan went one better taking 5 in his debut test.
Ankola and Razdan's success encouraged the selection of Atul Wasson who promised much early on in a tour of New Zealand. It was during the early 90s when the quality of pace bowling in Ranji Trophy went up several notches with quickies like Ankola, Razdan, Atul Wasson, Ashish Winston Zaidi, Prashant Vaidya, Abey Kuruvilla, Venkatesh Prasad, Subroto Bannerjee and one man who had a little more fire than the others: Javagal Srinath.
Srinath -- with bigger guns than Kapil in 1979 -- had a red-hot reputation in the domestic circuit, breaking or severely bruising body parts and accessories of batsmen all across the country, thereby unintentionally providing the medical community and helmet manufacturers with more business. Selectors and players with influence watched him closely with an eye to the future.
Srinath eventually made it (along with Subroto Bannerjee) to an Australian tour prior to WC92, earning himself some praise from Alan Border and the satisfaction of hitting some of the Aussie batsman. Two years later in South Africa he smashed one into the face of batsman Merrick Pringle, making him officially the first fast bowler from India to draw blood on a cricket field. In the last test of that series, in one lightning spell, he displaced Alan Donald as the fastest bowler to walk the earth.
In later series, after the retirement of Kapil Dev, Srinath was supported for a while by Manoj Prabhakar, Salil Ankola, Prashant Vaidya, Paras Mhambrey and Chetan Sharma. None stayed on as regular partners.
And then came Venkatesh Prasad. Prasad was bigger and taller than Srinath although slower; but for the first time ever, India at last had a fast bowling pair that could walk into any international side. Together, these two had great success in England in 1996 and back home got the highest compliment that pacemen could get at that time: making the West Indies batsmen hop around with sheer pace!
With the breakdown of Srinath a year later, Abey Kuruvilla joined Venkatesh Prasad for tour to West Indies and faded out later with the recovery of Srinath in 1996. Paceman Ajit Agarkar arrived with a bang around that time and so did two other young quicks -- Harvinder Singh and Debashish Mohanty -- who formed the back-up for Srinath and Prasad but again, did not quite live up to their early promise.
In 1999, a fresh crop of fast bowlers made some noise in the domestic tournaments, among whom Ashish Nehra and Zaheer Khan stood out. With Prasad fading out, these two left-hand fast bowlers formed a three-pronged pace attack with a rejuvenated Srinath, enjoying much success all the way to the WC2003 finals.
Srinath retired soon after and the spotlight was already on yet another left-arm quick: 19 year young Irfan Pathan, who was later followed by L. Balaji. A series of injuries to Zaheer Khan –- now India's strike bowler and considered a worthy successor to Srinath –- meant that Pathan and Balaji had to fill the gap, and fill they did with admirable proficiency making their bones in the tours of Australia in 2003, and Pakistan in 2004.
That very year, the next generation of Indian fast bowlers was already forming and beginning to evoke glances of interest from the powers that mattered. Notable among them were RP Singh, T. Yohannan, Munaf Patel, VRV Singh, Shib Shankar Paul, Ranadeb Bose and Gagandeep Singh to name a few, all in the fast-medium to fast range. Of this lot, RP Singh and Sreesanth have done well in the tour of Pakistan.
Recently, one of the most exciting chapters in Indian pace bowling was the tour game between England and Board Presidents X1 that had a line-up of Munaf Patel, VRV Singh and SS Paul. Patel was the one who rocked the English ferry with a stupendous performance of 10 for 91 that included two 5 wicket hauls. VRV however was picked for the first test in Nagpur, but unlucky not to have played. On May 08, 2006, almost 28 years after Kapil Dev's sensational debut, Patel is the latest among the fastest to make his debut. Already he is triggering a mass excitement with what little opportunity he has got so far in international cricket.
Over the years, the pattern of new and emerging batches of fast bowlers in India shows a clear indication of where the country's bowling attack is heading by the end of this year. Never has competition among the quicks been so intense, with only Irfan Pathan firmly established as strike bowler. Blooding new pace bowling talents from the current assemblage is a move that is forming questions for which everyone wants answers: Who will be the next to rise to the occasion? Who will form the next Kapil-Karsan or Srinath-Prasad?
Strap on your helmets people. The answers are coming fast.
Kapil struck back in his own typical way by bowling a fiery opening spell in his test debut against Pakistan. He hit a batsman on the helmet or head (whichever came first) with a bouncer. That was the green signal to break out of the shell of soft-medium bowling that India was known for.
Immediately thereafter, Kapil and Karsan formed a pace duo that earned new-found respect across the cricket world. Inspired by their exploits, a new breed of medium-fast to fast-medium pacemen competed for the second bowling spot after it was left vacant by Karsan Ghavri. Support came from Roger Binny, Madan Lal, Chetan Sharma, TA Sekhar, Raju Kulkarni, Sanjeev Sharma and Manoj Prabhakar.
Not too bad since the days of Sunil Gavaskar you would think, but there were more pleasant surprises to come.
The Indian team that toured Pakistan in 1989 had two young fast bowlers as understudies to Kapil and Prabhakar: Salil Ankola and Vivek Razdan. These were the first of the 6-foot+ tall pace brigade. Ankola took 6 wickets in a tour game, then Razdan went one better taking 5 in his debut test.
Ankola and Razdan's success encouraged the selection of Atul Wasson who promised much early on in a tour of New Zealand. It was during the early 90s when the quality of pace bowling in Ranji Trophy went up several notches with quickies like Ankola, Razdan, Atul Wasson, Ashish Winston Zaidi, Prashant Vaidya, Abey Kuruvilla, Venkatesh Prasad, Subroto Bannerjee and one man who had a little more fire than the others: Javagal Srinath.
Srinath -- with bigger guns than Kapil in 1979 -- had a red-hot reputation in the domestic circuit, breaking or severely bruising body parts and accessories of batsmen all across the country, thereby unintentionally providing the medical community and helmet manufacturers with more business. Selectors and players with influence watched him closely with an eye to the future.
Srinath eventually made it (along with Subroto Bannerjee) to an Australian tour prior to WC92, earning himself some praise from Alan Border and the satisfaction of hitting some of the Aussie batsman. Two years later in South Africa he smashed one into the face of batsman Merrick Pringle, making him officially the first fast bowler from India to draw blood on a cricket field. In the last test of that series, in one lightning spell, he displaced Alan Donald as the fastest bowler to walk the earth.
In later series, after the retirement of Kapil Dev, Srinath was supported for a while by Manoj Prabhakar, Salil Ankola, Prashant Vaidya, Paras Mhambrey and Chetan Sharma. None stayed on as regular partners.
And then came Venkatesh Prasad. Prasad was bigger and taller than Srinath although slower; but for the first time ever, India at last had a fast bowling pair that could walk into any international side. Together, these two had great success in England in 1996 and back home got the highest compliment that pacemen could get at that time: making the West Indies batsmen hop around with sheer pace!
With the breakdown of Srinath a year later, Abey Kuruvilla joined Venkatesh Prasad for tour to West Indies and faded out later with the recovery of Srinath in 1996. Paceman Ajit Agarkar arrived with a bang around that time and so did two other young quicks -- Harvinder Singh and Debashish Mohanty -- who formed the back-up for Srinath and Prasad but again, did not quite live up to their early promise.
In 1999, a fresh crop of fast bowlers made some noise in the domestic tournaments, among whom Ashish Nehra and Zaheer Khan stood out. With Prasad fading out, these two left-hand fast bowlers formed a three-pronged pace attack with a rejuvenated Srinath, enjoying much success all the way to the WC2003 finals.
Srinath retired soon after and the spotlight was already on yet another left-arm quick: 19 year young Irfan Pathan, who was later followed by L. Balaji. A series of injuries to Zaheer Khan –- now India's strike bowler and considered a worthy successor to Srinath –- meant that Pathan and Balaji had to fill the gap, and fill they did with admirable proficiency making their bones in the tours of Australia in 2003, and Pakistan in 2004.
That very year, the next generation of Indian fast bowlers was already forming and beginning to evoke glances of interest from the powers that mattered. Notable among them were RP Singh, T. Yohannan, Munaf Patel, VRV Singh, Shib Shankar Paul, Ranadeb Bose and Gagandeep Singh to name a few, all in the fast-medium to fast range. Of this lot, RP Singh and Sreesanth have done well in the tour of Pakistan.
Recently, one of the most exciting chapters in Indian pace bowling was the tour game between England and Board Presidents X1 that had a line-up of Munaf Patel, VRV Singh and SS Paul. Patel was the one who rocked the English ferry with a stupendous performance of 10 for 91 that included two 5 wicket hauls. VRV however was picked for the first test in Nagpur, but unlucky not to have played. On May 08, 2006, almost 28 years after Kapil Dev's sensational debut, Patel is the latest among the fastest to make his debut. Already he is triggering a mass excitement with what little opportunity he has got so far in international cricket.
Over the years, the pattern of new and emerging batches of fast bowlers in India shows a clear indication of where the country's bowling attack is heading by the end of this year. Never has competition among the quicks been so intense, with only Irfan Pathan firmly established as strike bowler. Blooding new pace bowling talents from the current assemblage is a move that is forming questions for which everyone wants answers: Who will be the next to rise to the occasion? Who will form the next Kapil-Karsan or Srinath-Prasad?
Strap on your helmets people. The answers are coming fast.
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