Sports India

Balaji’s impressive swing bowling in Pakistan was an important factor in India’s success there in 2003.

Ashish Nehra’s swing at high pace could be destructive at times, but he mysteriously disappeared from the team after his creditable performance against New Zealand and Zimbabwe last year.

Zaheer Khan’s high promise as one of the premiere pacemen in the world notwithstanding, he has done a disappearing act as well.

Irfan Pathan, who bent his back to register respectable radar readings, and had the uncanny ability to bend the ball both ways at will, has been criticized publicly and eventually dropped.

It seems that Greg Chappell has banished most of the bowlers that saw India emerge as a team with one of the best pace attacks anywhere. He has exchanged the impressive fast bowling battery with a bunch of rookies who looked undercooked in the West Indies.

VRV Singh embarassed himself repeatedly as he showed he could not run in without dislodging the bails at the non-striker end. The much-touted pace hope struggle to get to 135Kph, and seemed to run out of steam quickly. Sreesanth was expensive, but a trier. Munaf Patel did well by comparison, but even he looked exhausted quicker than you would normally expect. In the ODIs, both Munaf and Sreesanth were expensive and unable to get needed strikes.

Were it not for old warhorse Anil Kumble, and in the last couple of tests Harbhajan Singh, India may have done as poorly in the Tests as in the ODIs. Indeed, Harbhajan was dropped for the first two games despite being one of the two best bowlers in the ODIs along with Ajit Agarkar, who was sent back after the end of the ODI series for reasons best known to the selectors.

The lack of a bowling coach, the fall of India’s emerging strength in pace, and the elimination of tried and tested performers indicates that Greg Chappel and his companion Ian Frazer have taken India backwards in this respect.

It is thus heartening to hear names such as Balaji, Zaheer and Nehra again. The selectors must correct the slide in India’s bowling performances by picking the best bowlers available.