The Hindu : Sport : Praveen: swinging his way to success

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Praveen: swinging his way to success

Special Correspondent

Mumbai: Learie Constantine wrote four decades ago that there is no way of becoming a great bowler simply by copying someone else. As in music and art, so in cricket; each bowling artist is so because he has something the others haven’t got; it is that very quintessence of his own personality as expressed through the medium of his bowling hand that makes him famous.

When England captain Percy Chapman regarded Constantine as the fastest bowler in the world, the West Indian mulled over and said to himself: “I ought to know whether pace alone will do the trick – and it won’t, but with controlled length, it is an enormous help.”

Constantine’s ‘The Young Cricketer’s Companion’ is a classic book on cricket. Praveen Kumar Sakat Singh would not have probably got his hands to it, but the 21-year-old from Meerut has grabbed the Commonwealth Bank Tri-series opportunity with both hands and expressed his personality through remarkable swing bowling. Not only did he compete, and play match-winning roles against Sri Lanka and Australia in the second final at Brisbane, he also proved that he’s worthy of a place in the Indian team for one-day matches.

Two of the national selectors — Dilip Vengsarkar and Venkatapathy Raju — are pleased that the somewhat rustic Uttar Pradesh seamer was able to give a remarkable account of his talent. On Tuesday, M.S. Dhoni marked him to take the new ball, once it was confirmed that Ishant Sharma will not get another chance to tease and torment Ricky Ponting.

The fascinating aspect of India’s tour of Australia has been the inclination of even the tyros to challenge, themselves and the batsmen. In the absence of Zaheer Khan, the lanky Ishant took the responsibility, made the Australian batsmen bob and weave, growing into a world class bowler. Pace allied with swing and length was his forte.

“The more he bowled — and he is young, he has to do that — he became stronger and effective. The spell to Ponting (at Perth) announced his arrival into international cricket,” said Ravi Shastri.

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