Rahul Dravid: I would hate to see Zaheer limp away from international cricket

Zaheer Khan

Indian legend and former captain, Rahul Dravid, expressed his concern over the future of Zaheer Khan. Since his comeback to the Indian side from prolonged injuries, the young and inexperienced Indian bowling attack turned to Zaheer to lead them in their overseas venture. But Zaheer has failed to trouble batsmen and the Indian bowling side seemed to be all out of ideas.

Dravid feels that Zaheer should think hard about his future in the Indian side before they set sail to England for the 5 Test series later this year as it might take a huge toll on the injury prone pacer. Although Zaheer took 16 wickets in 4 tests since his return, Dravid said that Zaheer’s bowling has clearly lacked purpose since his return to the side.

Zaheer took a five-wicket haul in the second innings of the recent Wellington test match against New Zealand after bowling 51 overs, but failed to impress in his performance.

“Can he survive five Test matches in England? I am not so sure,” Dravid was quoted as saying by ‘ESPNcricinfo’.

“I think it is a question he deeply needs to ask himself. He doesn’t want to end up being someone who struggles his way through to the end. It can be really hard. And we have seen, he struggled to back up time and time again in these two series. So that’s an issue he needs to consider, Indian selectors need to consider,” he said.

“I would hate to see him end his career on a low,” Dravid said about Zaheer, who is the second most successful pacer in Indian history, second only to Kapil Dev, with 311 wickets in 92 tests so far.

“He has been a great bowler for India, arguably the finest India fast bowler since Kapil Dev. I would hate to see Zaheer Khan end his career bowling 120-125 kph and limp away from international cricket. He has done a great job to get himself fit for these two series and to be fair, he has bowled well in patches, he has bowled consistently,” said Dravid.

Speaking about the Indian spinners, Dravid said that spinners have struggled in overseas conditions even in the past and people should be patient with them as the tracks do not help the spinners much.

“We will need to show some patience with our spinners, whether it is R Ashwin or whether it’s (Ravindra) Jadeja, it’s early days for both in international cricket,” he said.

“We have seen some greats of Indian cricket, including Anil Kumble and Harbhajan Singh, take a long time to get used to bowling with a Kookaburra ball in overseas conditions. I thought we were a little bit impatient with Ashwin. We haven’t given him as much a run as I would like, so I think there is an opportunity for him to get back into the side and play a few more games. He will only learn if he play more games,” insisted Dravid.