THERE IS MORE than numbers at stake in this series. Some cash is involved as well. If the Indian team is able to draw or win the current Test series against the visiting Proteas, they will ensure that they remain on top of the ICC ladder. But they will also be richer by $ 1,75,000. The second placed team (as on 1 April) will get only $ 75,000 from the ICC. So, the players get to spilt an extra $ 100,000 if they can hang on to their number one slot.
With the kind of money the Indian players are making already, $ 175,000 does not sound like a lot of money. But a little more cash in the vault is surely not going to hurt and, as it is, these players believe that there is no such thing as too much money. All the cash they can muster, is more than welcome.
So, there is a bit of extra financial motivation as well for the Indian players to topple SA on home turf (although after Amla and Kallis together put on 340 runs in Nagpur, and Dale Steyn followed it up with an outstanding display of pace bowling on Day Three, forcing India to follow on, the Indians must have realised that it’s not going to be easy to beat this African outfit even on home turf). Thanks to a dodgy ICC ranking system, the Indian Test side has somehow managed to reach the top, but the zip and spark is missing from the side.
This zip and spark can be provided by extra pace… by sheer speed… by thunderbolt deliveries. But sadly, in this Indian bowling line-up we do not have any tearaway fast bowler, who can ignite the proceedings. And, we do not have anyone on the horizon as well.
In the T20 international between Pakistan and Australia in Melbourne on Friday, it was awesome to watch Shaun Tait hurl the ball at 160.7 kmph (that’s more than 100 miles per hour). It was the fastest ball delivered in Australia ever since these recordings of speed came into being. And Tait has now got his eyes fixed on Shoaib Akhtar’s world record of the fastest ball ever delivered (161.3 kmph), which he bowled in the 2003 World Cup in South Africa.
Such exhibition of raw pace deals a psychological blow. It benumbs the opposition and galvanizes the fielders. The feet of the batsmen are kind of congealed to the crease. When the speed of the ball is flashed on the big screen, the crowd erupts in a frenzy. One ball has the power to do all this.
But the question is will we ever see an Indian bowler send down such deliveries in any form of the game? Will we ever see an Indian tearaway instill fear into the minds of the opposing batsmen? At this point in time, the answer seems to be an unequivocal NO.
There is little point in arguing that we cannot produce such bowlers in our part of the world because of the climate, genes, training, diet etc. All that is nonsense. Pakistan has produced Akhtar and, at their peak, the likes of Wasim Akram, Waqar Younus and Imran Khan could be safely referred to as tearaway fast bowlers. (And the conditions, climate, diet etc. in Pakistan are not too different from that of India).
The number one Test side in the world should possess at least one tearaway (if not more). Zaheer has developed guile but has cut down on pace. Batsmen around the world can respect Zaheer, but they won’t be scared of the speed he generates. Sreesanth has spent more time in rehab at the NCA in Bangalore than he has on the playing field. Munaf Patel continues to be an enigma. And even a cursory glance at Ishant will tell you that he is of a fragile build. If he exerts too much, something is going to give way somewhere.
VRV Singh of Punjab showed glimpses of pace for a brief while, but he has had one injury after the other and is not even in the state Ranji team at the moment. The likes of Irfan Pathan and Praveen Kumar can be called military medium at best (Shahid Afridi’s faster one is quicker than their fastest delivery). So, can such bowlers create fear and doubt in the minds of the batsmen with their pace? (Yes, of course, such fast bowlers can create doubt, for the batsmen can mistake them for spinners, but surely they cannot create fear).
In the match where Tait send down that beast of a delivery (160.7 kmph) to Imran Farhat, there were two other tearaway bowlers (Dirk Nannes and Mitchell Johnson) who were bowling in the 150’s. Three genuinely fast bowlers in one line-up meant that there was no respite for the Pak batsmen and, as it turned out, they failed to chase down a fairly low target.
The depth, reserves or bench-strength – call it what you will – that the Australians seem to possess is surely great. Apart from Tait, Nannes and Johnson there is Peter Siddle, Doug Bollinger, Ryan Harris, Shane Watson, Clint McKay. The likes of Brett Lee, Nathan Bracken and Ben Hilfenhaus are close to recovering from their respective injuries. And I could even have missed out on some. (There are so many of them that you cannot remember all).
But in the Indian set-up, even if we cast an eye on the kind of products that are coming through the line (the likes of Mithun and Kulkarni), we cannot even call them quick bowlers. Efficient, at best.
If India wants to be the number one Test team on a consistent basis, it will have to develop or discover at least one tearway fast bowler (if not two). Someone whom the batsmen do not want to face. Do we see one coming along? Alas! No one even on the horizon.
