The Hindu : Bowling is the key

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Mar 03, 2004

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Sport - Cricket

Bowling is the key

By S. Dinakar

CHENNAI, MARCH 2. During times when a vital department is rocked by injuries, team selection can be similar to solving a jigsaw; putting a piece here, and keeping another one there, before the picture is complete.

Getting the bowling combination right must have been high on the priority list of the selectors when they met in Kolkata on Monday to pick the 15-member Indian ODI squad for the five-match series in Pakistan.

It is the Indian attack that holds the key to both the Test and the ODI series in Pakistan. The Indian batting, in familiar conditions, should both hold firm and dazzle, the pace and fire of Shoaib Akhtar and Mohammed Sami notwithstanding.

And it is the vulnerability in the Pakistani batting — here there is far too much dependence on skipper Inzamam-ul-Haq and Yousuf Youhana — that could open the window of opportunity for Sourav Ganguly's men.

Ganguly would know this, so would pace spearhead Zaheer Khan, who has managed to convince the selection panel about the extent of his recovery from a hamstring tear.

However, India will be without the services of the injured leg-spinner Anil Kumble (shoulder strain), off-spinner Harbhajan Singh (rehabilitating from finger surgery) and paceman Ajit Agarkar (stressed shin bone), at least for the ODIs.

And left-arm swinger Ashish Nehra will have to pass a fitness test before Syed Kirmani & Co. in the Duleep Trophy final, beginning in Mohali on March 4.

In the absence of Kumble and Harbhajan, the Indian spin might be stretched in Pakistan. While left-armer Murali Kartik, who endured a rather forgettable journey to Australia, has the responsibility of being the mainstay thrust on him, rookie off-spinning all-rounder Ramesh Powar will have to, in a jiffy, make the transition to the rarefied heights of international cricket.

On the brighter side, Kartik is a different customer on the sub-continental pitches where the ball `grips' for the spinners. The Railway bowler will have to look carefully over his shoulder, though, with Karnataka left-armer Sunil Joshi's name doing the rounds again.

Like Kartik, Powar believes in the virtues of flight and loop. The 25-year-old Mumbai all-rounder, who has four five-wicket hauls and an equal number of hundreds in 40 first class games, is a hard striker of the ball, and it is this aspect of his cricket that clinched his selection.

Young pacemen Irfan Pathan and L. Balaji, success stories in Australia, will be scalp-hunting in altogether different conditions. For a start, their length will have to be fuller.

Mohammed Kaif, forced to miss the VB tri-series down under after sustaining a thumb injury, is back in the middle-order. Apart from his ability to run hard and rotate the strike, Kaif's uncanny knack of hitting the stumps will add to the team's fielding. The left-handed Hemang Badani, who top-scored with an unbeaten 60 in the first V.B. tri-series final in Melbourne, keeps his place.

Rohan Gavaskar batted and fielded with much spirit in Australia, apart from turning his arm usefully, but finds himself omitted; he has only lost out to two more experienced campaigners in Kaif and Badani and is bound to receive another chance somewhere down the line.

The idea of choosing a specialist wicket-keeper can never be faulted. However, Parthiv Patel, notwithstanding oodles of talent, is going through a crisis of confidence with the big gloves, and should have been kept away from limited overs cricket. The spunky Ajay Ratra deserved a recall, at least in the abbreviated form of the game.

The Indian side is well balanced with eight batsmen, four pacemen, two spinners, one of them an all-rounder, and a specialist wicket-keeper. If the bowling holds, India should do well.

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