The fast bowling stocks

[The Outsider]

Reading some of the posts around the fast bowling selection for the South Africa tour, left me amazed. 'Bring back Nehra for the tour'. 'Bring back RP Singh'. 'Bring back Pathan'. Here is a reality check on some of the fast bowling prospects for the tour : 1. Nehra : Frankly, a joke to even consider him for selection. Last played a FC match more than 2 years back and hobbled off after bowling 10 overs. Never was consistent test match bowler anyways. 2. Pathan : Hasn't set foot on a cricket field since the IPL (7 months). Hasn't played a FC match since Duleep Trophy (9 months). Was dishing out crap throughout the IPL at 125 kmph. Though his stats for the last domestic FC season were half decent, he missed a lot of games due to injury. And even now is injured. 3. RP Singh : One good show against Orissa and he is back in 'form'! He is ready to go to South Africa! And yeah, don't forget he did well in South Africa in T20s, so he will rip them apart in test matches with his 125 kmph thunderbolts. Please read about Orissa's stature as a FC team, or at least bother watching his trundling in the Ranji. 4. Munaf : 4 wickets in an innings and he is also back in 'form'! Ready to rock Cape Town! Just tell him where the party is! More 125 kmph trundling. Don't get fooled by the 4 wickets. On many of these Ranji wickets trundlers run through oppositions in the first couple of hours. Daaku Ranadeb Bose has made a living out of this mode of operation. 5. Yadav : Gun barrel straight. Couldn't even trouble Zimbabwe and second string Sri Lanka. Has the makings, but needs to spend more time at domestic before he becomes VRV Singh Part II. There are only 5 viable pace bowling options in the country : 1. Zaheer 2. Sreesanth 3. Ishant 4. Unadkat (very green, but has done well in all opportunities) 5. Praveen Kumar (trundler, but could serve as a back up along with Munaf) Hopefully, after this post at least laughable posts like 'Bring back Nehra and Pathan' will be eliminated from ICF.

[Cricketics]

Nehra just can't be played because he hasn't even appeared for Delhi, so rperesenting INdia is a total joke. Praveen Kumar, i have been tired of asking him to play in tests, but i guess it will remain a dream to see him in test side. In Saf, I won't be surprised to see Zaheer being our pick of the bowlers as always in all 3 test(if he is fit to play in all) I would like to see Ishant though. He must be pumped up to play as soon as given chance. He bowled well without luck in Australian flat tracks, and I am sure he will do well on Saf wickets. Even more than Sreesanth.

[akshaywekhande]

Unadkat? If umesh yadav is vrv part 2, then this man could be irfan part 2. And trust me we dont want to waste another impressive bowler by rushing him in too early.

[saneindian]

Add Mithun to the mix as well. Yes he struggles to hit 85 mph but he can bowl long spells at 81-82 mph. If only he could add a bit more of pace, he will be a handy bowler.

[hari504504]

Chahar looks very promising even though it has only been a couple of matches.. not saying he should be int he first team.. but just one of the up and coming

[Sir john]

i feel sad for vikramjeet mailk.(from my home state himachal) he is a very promising bowler in domestic circut,.

[jaideep]

the topic shud be "medium pacers bowling stocks"...india dont have fast bowlers...even if we do, we all know what happens once they enter the national set up

[The Outsider]

I missed Mithun, thanks for pointing it out. He should be in the viable selection list below Unadkat and above Praveen Kumar. For the poster who criticized my selection of Unadkat, it's a fair criticism. I just feel he has that something extra and might benefit from being in the senior team set up more than trundling on pattas or 2 session green tops. And in case of the occasional crisis situation when he is forced to play he seems to have the ability to be a reliable 3rd seamer

[fineleg]

i feel sad for vikramjeet mailk.(from my home state himachal) he is a very promising bowler in domestic circut,.

who's that? Good if he is indeed promising bowler.

[fineleg]

What abt Sudeep Tyagi, Dhawal Kulkarni ?

[pensionplan]

Yeah true. Pathan in anyone's list of pace bowlers got to be the biggest cricket joke of 2010. This guy for some reason is brought up every time there is a slot open. He has one of the worst attitudes a player can ever have. Almost every time he speaks he talks as if he needs no improvements to his bowling and selectors are being unfair to him. I think Pradeep Sangwan with the ball is much better than Pathan. Enough of Pathan. His days of playing for India as a pace bowler are long over. If I were him I would try his hand as a specialist batsman at the domestic level and see how it goes. He is not a bad talent with the bat and should try his hand there instead of living in illusion.

[gaurav92]

Other bowlers that you forgot to mention there Prof. Abhimanyu Mithun Although his action doesn't please me to take him into Playing XI.But he did reasonably well in the SL Tour this year, and i am sure he has more to contribute in the coming years.He is a completely different bowler when there is something in the pitch for the fast bowlers.Although he may not be a part of the Playing XI given that we already have 3 seamers who will make the cut (Ishant, Sreesanth and Zaheer), he can be a back up bowler. Dhawal Kulkarni A good swing bowler, handy for the tour of S.Africa, although he isn't a quickie, bowls medium pace of 125-130, but bowls straight and makes the batsman play on most occasions with his impeccable line and length.

[gaurav92]

Yeah true. Pathan in anyone's list of pace bowlers got to be the biggest cricket joke of 2010. This guy for some reason is brought up every time there is a slot open. He has one of the worst attitudes a player can ever have. Almost every time he speaks he talks as if he needs no improvements to his bowling and selectors are being unfair to him. I think Pradeep Sangwan with the ball is much better than Pathan. Enough of Pathan. His days of playing for India as a pace bowler are long over. If I were him I would try his hand as a specialist batsman at the domestic level and see how it goes. He is not a bad talent with the bat and should try his hand there instead of living in illusion.

Another Trundler, doesn't swing it either, just seams it.But he has a good yorker which perhaps most India fast bowlers don't have in their arsenal.

[fineleg]

g92, most reserves are trundlers. we are only trying to pick the better trundler :((

[gaurav92]

g92, most reserves are trundlers. we are only trying to pick the better trundler :((

:cantstop: I agree, but a trundler is good when he knows his limits, and tries to bowl well within the certified parameters.But when trundlers try and work up extra pace, at the expense of fitness, control over the line and length, they make themselves look very shoddy.Umesh Yadav is one such example.He has no control over his line and length. But we do have a good Trio of fast bowlers who can do well in SAF Zak, Sree and Ishant.But if one bowler has an off day, we are pwned big time :(.We will then have to depend on our "Reserve Trundlers" like Dhawal, Unadkat and Praveen Kumar.

[vishalvirsingh]

i beg to differ guys umesh took 7 for 74 recently and mind u these are his early days... he has some thing that shoaib and aamir and wasim and dale steyn has that is pace, we need a fast bowler a genuine fast bowler after zaheer , ishant and srisant. in case one of them gets injured i wud want to play himly as the third pacer as when it comes to swing and pace possiblnce y zaheer and sreesanth are the best, the third pacer should not be a medium pace trundler like other bowlers , in SAF any pace bowler who gets a chance out of our so called trundlers will do well whether it is mithun or unadket or umesh yadav or even dhawal .. i am trying to say 95 percent wickets will be taken by pacers ..i expect sressant and zaheer and even ishant to be greatly successfull but i am sure that one of them would be unfit and one of our trundlers will get a chance some times there.. i would prefer yadav to unadket as yadav is more experienced faster though he is not a left armer which is a dis advantage but i bet we have a zaheer as a left armer and i may go with umesh as umesh is genuinely fast. if u guys noticed in challenger trophy this guy touched 146 k consistently and all runs that were on his bowling were on edges snicks i mean apart from a few staright shots..i am a batsman and i know that those runs are lucky runs and can get u out anytime and a batsman feels the fear , players were playing him with a lot of caution... though i am impressed with unadket also but i would advise him to hone his skills a lil more as if he is a bit young and gets a thrashing he will get broken up where as umesh is 25 or so he is a young man now and if he cant fight now with the best batsman on SAF fast pitches he can never do...i would say he can really emerge as a good bowler....Vishal

[vishalvirsingh]

agree, but a trundler is good when he knows his limits, and tries to bowl well within the certified parameters.But when trundlers try and work up extra pace, at the expense of fitness, control over the line and length, they make themselves look very shoddy.Umesh Yadav is one such example.He has no control over his line and length. Dear Gaurav, u pointed a good point no control over line and length....shoib akhtar wasim malcolm marshal all genuine fast bowlers did not have control over there length early in there career.. slow medium pacers do have control .. even sreesanth does not have control would u call him a bad bowler..? only zaheer has control among fast medium bowlers.. in test u have to force a batsman to do mistakes i see umesh can turn into a good test fast bowler not a good one day fast bowler, he should be picked in tests only initially till he becomes a good bowler...mithun is too slow , unadket is good but he needs a bit more of pace to become genuinely dangerous, dhawal is average. umesh and probably sudeep tyagi and i loved that bowler in mumbai team in IPL , that tear away fast bowler i missed his name...he is good , can anybody tell me about him.

[vishalvirsingh]

nehra pathan rpsing and munaf are history for test matches.... nehra can hardly manage his ten overs in a one day international when is 100% fit. pathan has got disheartened and possibly declined. rp is a fat guy who bowls slow medium today at 125 K. munaf... the biggest failure along with VRV Singh.. 2 fast bowlers with great potential but big failures like vinod kambli.9 as a batsman).... Vishal

[akshaywekhande]

That mumbai indians fast bowler is abu nechim. And i agree with your point on umesh apart from picking 7/74 he also retired hurt one batsman. & also umesh is 23 and not 25.

[saneindian]

When was the last time the NCA/BCCI conducted a coaching camp for pacers not in the national team but with enough potential? Some of these young guys will do well to get trained for 2-3 weeks in India and also a few stints in SA/Aus/Eng. It's time the BCCI woke up and had a concrete plan for development of not just pacers, but spinners, batsmen and keeper too. I remember how England used to send its spinners to India for training and Swann used to a regular in that grouo some 2-3 years back. Obviously all the coaching has helped