Zaheer Khan - India's forgotten hero

For some reason, India has never produced too many Devs or Akrams or Steyns. If you ask the general Indian public about great Indian fast bowlers, you will most likely get only one answer, Kapil Dev. I wonder if the Indian fans even respect good fast bowlers when they come around. There is no doubt that India is and always has been batsmen loving nation. It is probably why our batsmen have always been the bigger stars.

One bowler who I felt never quite got his due was Zaheer Khan. For me, he is definitely one of the best and I am surprised on how quickly people have chosen to forget him. I remember when Sourav Ganguly was dropped. There were protests in West Bengal, particularly in his hometown Kolkata. When the somewhat less popular Rahul Dravid was dropped from the ODI squad, there were no protests. Yet, thousands of people were following his progress in the Ranji Trophy which crashed the servers of the sites providing live text commentary as he went on to compile a century in his comeback game for Karnataka. On the other hand, Zaheer was left out of the team recently and yet there was hardly any outrage. Some fans may have followed Mumbai’s Ranji game against MP, but that was more because they cared about Mumbai. Is Zaheer that ordinary a player?

An ODI career with an average of nearly 30 and economy of nearly 5 might fool you into believing that he is ordinary indeed. But that is far from the truth. His ODI strike-rate of 35.8 is actually better than even Wasim Akram’s. Even Sri Lankan spin wizard Murali only has a marginally better strike rate than this talented pacer from Shrirampur. Everyone remembers Mohammed Kaif and Yuvraj Singh for that amazing Natwest win, but do they remember that Zaheer was India’s highest wicket taker in that series?

Since his ODI debut, India played 359 ODIs with a Win/Loss ratio of 1.40. Thanks to many injuries that he suffered over the years, Zaheer played only 194 of those, but India’s W/L ratio rose to 1.625 in those matches. In ODIs won, Zaheer averaged an amazing 23.75, and struck after every 31 balls. During the 2001-05 period, which probably was his best, he averaged 26 while the team’s average was nearly 31. In that period, he picked 25 wickets in South Africa at 18 apiece and 14 wickets in England at 23.

His performance at the big stage was highly under-rated. In the three World Cups that he was around for, Zaheer claimed wickets at just 20 runs apiece at phenomenal strike-rate of 27 balls per victim. In 2003 World Cup, he ended up being the fourth highest wicket taker. His spell of 4/42 against the Kiwis stood out as his best performance in that tournament. In the last World Cup, he was the joint highest wicket-taker with Shahid Afridi and took crucial wickets for India in many games. Mike Hussey’s wicket in Quarter-finals helped restricting Australia to 260. English captain Andrew Strauss also fell to Zaheer at a crucial time, which helped India tie a game that was running away from us. Any time MS Dhoni needed some wickets, he could throw the ball to Zaheer and he would get the desired result. Probably the only two people who contributed more to India’s victorious campaign were Yuvraj Singh and Sachin Tendulkar.

For all Indian bowlers with more than 100 Test wickets, Zaheer Khan has the best strike rate (Irfan Pathan has slightly better strike-rate but has taken exactly 100 wickets). In Test matches won by India when he was playing, Zaheer took 149 wickets at an average of 25, taking a wicket every 8 overs he bowled. Post his stint in English county for Worcestershire in 2006, Zaheer became an extremely smart bowler. His control with the duke ball was exceptional. With the SG ball (the ones used in India) he was a threat not just with the new ball, but also with the old ball as he used reverse swing very effectively. In 2007’s Nottingham Test, the left-armer picked 9 wickets to win India the game and helped us claim a historic series win in England after 21 years. That, most definitely, is one of my favourite Zaheer performances.

Had Zaheer remained injury-free, he would have undoubtedly managed 350 plus wickets in both the formats. Not only was he a very capable leader of India’s bowling attack when they reached the #1 spot in Tests and won the World Cup, at his best, he was one of the best in the world. Of course, looking at his dodgy fitness and plans for 2015, India had to look ahead. Whether he makes a comeback to India’s squad again or not, only time will tell. However, to forget the contribution of this wonderful bowler would be just plain silly.