Indian Bowling - Powerhouse or pathetic?

I am disheartened to see that after all these years after having so many good coaches and support staff, having a bowler like Dennis Lillee to coach young bowlers, we are yet to see a genuine fast bowler in our country who can bowl raw pace with complete control – in short a bowler like Dale Steyn. Agreed, there are bowlers like Umesh Yadav,Varun Aaron who are bowling quite fast, but just fast, is it enough?

I have heard many people say that Zaheer Khan is the best fast bowler for our country as of now. I do quite agree with them to some extent because there are no other fast bowlers to give him competition. But still, problems like frequent breakdowns before an important series and injuries have kept him out of the game for so long that one can go as far as to say that his injury days are more in number compared to his days on field (pun intended, of course). Yes, I do agree that his stats are on par with some of the other successful bowlers of his era like James Anderson, Morne Morkel, Ben Hilfenhaus etc. But past stats can’t help him get wickets in the present. Zaheer Khan, in the last two years has been a mere shadow of his former self. Except for the World Cup, he has been quite average in his bowling and even his batting to some extent. His fitness has been on the wane for the last 4 years: be it the breakdown in England, or his poor showing in Australia, this bowler who is supposed to be our spearhead has failed miserably. His pace has dropped alarmingly and his rhythm is not the same as the old Zak’s used to be. This was evident from the way he bowled in Australia where pitches support fast bowlers and he didn’t have one good showing to his name. So, if Zaheer wants to continue as our premium fast bowler, I reckon he should improve his fitness and his fielding, which have also been mediocre off late. And it does not help that age is catching up with him quite fast.

There’s nothing much to say about the other pacers that India has got. Promising though some of them are, I think they have not done much to prove their credibility in the side. They have simply not done justice to their talents. Umesh Yadav after a fine debut series against the Windies has failed to impress with his poor bowling. His line and length does not suit Indian conditions and it showed from the way he bowled in the NZ series. He made some of us think that we are still in Australia or maybe he has still not recovered from the memories of the tour. Trying out bounce out an opposition in subcontinent conditions would never work and to be a successful bowler, you have got to know that. Even in Sri Lanka, he went for runs and in the T20, had Pathan not gotten the wicket of Jayawardene it could’ve been even worse.

Irfan Pathan, I’m happy to say has made quite a good comeback and has been among the wickets in the last two series. It is a happy sight for any Indian fan to see the Irfan of the old back to form. Though he has lost some pace, he can still be handy as the bowling all-rounder in the team. Ashok Dinda, is the only other bowler worth mentioning. Though having the support of former players like Sourav Ganguly, he  has not done much to stake a claim in the main eleven. And going by the team selected for the NZ  T20, I reckon Dhoni prefers Balaji to Dinda and it is not good news for him. But I strongly believe that he has got the potential to succeed at the highest level and its only a matter of time before he bags a place for himself in the playing eleven.

Stalwarts on the wane!Will they ever be able to regain their old form?

Bowlers like Aaron, Munaf Patel, Balaji, Sharma, Praveen Kumar, Sreesanth are bowlers who just come and go into the fray and no one has been impressive enough to be retained. One can go as far as to say that they are like lightning – they come and go that quick!!

When it comes to the spin department, India has got some talent in bowlers like Ashwin and Ojha. But both of them are still in their early days and it remains to be seen whether their performance will sustain against better oppositions like Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Australia and England who have some good players of spin in their ranks. And the most important question for them would be “Can they replicate their success overseas?” But to know that we would have to wait till the end of 2013.

There is one more problem that haunts the spin bowling department of the Indian team. If either Ashwin or Ojha lose form or get injured, are there enough replacements on our bench?Certainly Harbhajan can come into the side since he’s got the experience. But it seems that he still hasn’t gotten back his old form and wouldn’t be of much use in the immediate future. Looking beyond Harbhajan, I feel sad to say that there aren’t enough spinners in our reserves. There’s a dearth of good spinners in a country which is known for producing outstanding spinners in every era, like  Bishen Singh,Venkatraghavan, Prasanna, Kumble etc. to name a few. It is evident from the fact that the Indian board has started a facility to groom spinners which we had in plenty in the past without any special training.

It is my opinion that to be a strong team, the bowlers should be better than the batsmen because the best way of winning a match is by bowling the opposition out of the game like India did against NZ recently. It needs to be seen what steps BCCI are going to take to find new talents, to create a potent bowling attack like West Indies and Australia of the past and like South Africa in the present??