Opinion: Khaleel Ahmed is who India need as a left arm seamer in the CWC 2019
Khaleel Ahmed's action instantly reminds you of Mitchell Starc, Australia's lead bowler who was also the player-of-the-tournament in the previous World Cup. Though he does not appear physically as strong as Starc and is certainly slower than the Aussie quick by around 10 kilometres per hour, he has the ingredients to fill a vacancy in India's ODI squad.
Khaleel Ahmed's performance in yesterday's match against Hong Kong - his senior international debut - played a crucial role in getting India out of jail and into the super-fours. He got the wicket of top-scorer Nizaqat Khan and followed it up with the wicket of Christopher Carter. A last-over slower ball that deceived Ehsan Khan finished all of Hong Kong's hopes of a major upset and gave Khaleel his third wicket.
Some standout factors of Khaleel's bowling style included his ability to bowl within the stumps, a slight bit of reverse swing, bounce and raw pace. Provided that the conditions were among the least seam-friendly in the world, Khaleel could manage to extract whatever he could in his first international outing. If nothing else, his high left-arm action certainly did some part of the trick in unsettling the batsmen.
Indian bowling flourished during the 2000's with the presence of world-class left arm seamers such as Zaheer Khan, Ashish Nehra, Irfan Pathan and RP Singh. All of the major limited overs tournament that India won during that period - Natwest 2002, World T20 2007, 2008 CB Series, 2009 Compaq Cup, 2010 Asia Cup and the 2011 World Cup - were with at least two of these seamers in the side. A major reason was their ability to swing the red or the white, the new or the old ball, both ways with pace variations.
India have not bothered enough to include another left-arm seamer even as Ashish Nehra was playing and winning T20I's regularly in the last two years. Jaidev Unadkat is the only additional left-arm seamer I can remember getting a chance in this decade. A lack of variety in the pace department hurt India's chances in both World Cup 2015 and Champions Trophy 2017, as India did not have a single left-arm seamer in the squad on either occasion.
In conditions like Australia and New Zealand, where the ball would actually swing, Khaleel might be a useful choice. Such tours would also help assess the squad for the World Cup in England next summer. Khaleel, if not anything else, adds variety to India's pace attack with his unusual angle - considering that most teams are packed with right-handed batsmen these days.