Irfan Pathan back to swinging days

[King]

The Baroda speedster is close to getting back his rhythm and add the old bite back into the Indian pace attack. More... Irfan Pathan back to swinging days TIMES NEWS NETWORK / Pradeep Kumar CHENNAI, July 6: The strong thuds of pacer Irfan Pathan's legs at the MRF Pace foundation is nothing new these days. The Baroda speedster, who landed in the city a few days ago, is close to getting back his rhythm and add the old bite back into the Indian pace attack. Pathan, who was touted as one the most exciting prospects in recent times, found himself struggling off late, with his bowling losing its pace and swing. According to experts working on him, he has rediscovered both again. But what really went wrong? "So many things have happened. When you play a lot of cricket, there's always the possibility of something going wrong with your action," he told TOI in an exclusive interview. "In fact, even when I was bowling well, I had this thing in the back of my mind. That something was wrong. But by the time I understood it, it was slightly late." The 22-year-old, who made his Test and ODI debut in Australia in the 2003-04 series, soon found himself on top of the world. A little while later, he made a mark with the bat too and was soon batting at important positions, including right at the top of the order.He had a glitch in his action. He is using a different sets of muscles because of this glitch. He wasn't using his leading arm fully, but now he has started doing that. Did his batting responsibilities distract him in any way? No, says Pathan. "A lot of people say this, but I do not agree with that. In fact, it increased my capabilities and helped me emerge as a better cricketer." Pathan stresses batting pressures never bothered him. "I tried to give my best in batting too. As I said, it helped me become a good cricketer. But I don't want to be known as an all-rounder. I want to be known as a bowler, who can bat really well. Anyway, this has never burdened me. I enjoy batting too." Is he open to criticism? Did it hurt while he was down? "A lot of people have said not-so-nice things about me. I respect that. At the end of the day I'm the one who is going to bowl and play. So I think I am the best judge of myself. Obviously you need people to tell what's wrong and what is right. But what you think is also important." Pathan's big problems started in 2006, after the highs in Australia and Pakistan. He was sent back from the tour in South Africa and was dropped for the subsequent tour to West Indies too. He was brought back for the World Cup but didn't play a single match in an abortive campaign. He is not with the team currently in England, after playing a handful of One-dayers in Ireland.

We have worked on his flaws. And Pathan is a fierce fighter. He has worked on all his weaknesses and is ready for action again.

Is he out of the lean patch? If so, how? "Everyone goes through these phases. I'm not the first one to go through this, now will I be the last one. I got myself motivated by talking to my former gurus and my family members." Dennis Lillee had recently said that Pathan would make an all-rounder in the years to come. "It's a pretty good feeling a legend like him makes such observations. I respect that." How will he take criticism. "A lot of people have something nice to say, and lot's others have some bad things too. I do not go too much into all those things. If I get affected by the nice things, I will get affected by the not-so-nice things too." Pathan says he is now ready for action after correcting the flaws in his bowling action during the training stint here. "Everything is going well. I working on on my routines well. My fitness level is high. I am bowling well and even played a game in which I bowled 17 overs. I am feeling very positive now. I cannot say anything more now. I'm waiting for things to happen. I just need to be patient.

[Brainfade]

Please let it be true The last thing we need is to see Irfan Pathan make it to the "Wasted Talents" list. With a gruelling season coming up, we need a good rotation of good pace bowlers. As it is, I am pessimistic about Balaji and Nehra ever making it back. Here's to a solid comeback from Irfan!

[Ram]

Wated Talents 4 : Irfan Pathan anybody ? :haha:

[Holysmoke]

its a shame.. he wouldve been deadly in english conditions if he was in form...

[The Outsider]

I would still say Pathan offers more promise than the likes of VRV "Lollipop" Singh.

[King]

Batting is a bonus for some natural all rounders. Some of the all rounders have claimed when their batting goes well they seem to bowl well too. The danger with that though is when both bites the dust the pressure is way too much. People will question both credentials unlike in just one department. Now if he ends up bowling well and not batting well people will try to tweak his batting to get back the old batting spark. In the end the enjoyment is gone out of one's cricket. I've had this happen to me in club cricket when I was thriving both with batting and bowling. Eventually I decided I'll take bowling easy and work on my batting full time. It is a very tough task to be an all rounder. No wonder they are such a rarity. We only find 2-3 genuine all rounders in a decade.

[Lurker]

The 22-year-old, who made his Test and ODI debut in Australia in the 2003-04 series, soon found himself on top of the world. A little while later, he made a mark with the bat too and was soon batting at important positions, including right at the top of the order.He had a glitch in his action. He is using a different sets of muscles because of this glitch. He wasn't using his leading arm fully, but now he has started doing that.

I am not sure what is meant by he was using a different set of muscles?? I can certainly see not using the leading arm as a problem though. Would be intersting to see how much his action has changed. One aspect of Irfan that has always bothered me is his leap. He never gained too much height and I can not remember any fast bowler who bowled so close to the ground. Most fast bowlers have a huge leap - Brett Lee or Donald being case in point.

[King]

Wasim Akram didn't have a huge leap either Lurker, he used to bustle through the crease. Some one like say Donald used to explode at the crease and hit the deck hard. Wasim bustled through the crease and was more nippy. I think Irfan has plenty of Akram influence. Meanwhile Zaheer has a huge leap and was told to leap forwards than sidewards.

[Ram]

One aspect of Irfan that has always bothered me is his leap. He never gained too much height and I can not remember any fast bowler who bowled so close to the ground. Most fast bowlers have a huge leap - Brett Lee or Donald being case in point.

All good fast bowlers dont have a leap Lurks. It is surprising that you have claimed to have seen no fast bowler bowling so close to the ground. Glenn Mcgrath , Wasim Akram , Michael Holding and many more greats of the game didnt have any pronounced leap just before the delivery stride.

[Lurker]

Wasim Akram didn't have a huge leap either Lurker' date=' he used to bustle through the crease. Some one like say Donald used to explode at the crease and hit the deck hard. Wasim bustled through the crease and was more nippy. I think Irfan has plenty of Akram influence. Meanwhile Zaheer has a huge leap and was told to leap forwards than sidewards.[/quote'] Fair point about Akram Ravi. My only disagreement would be that Akram ws quite strong in the shoulders so he could really whip it. Pathan is not so sturdy lets say so I am not sure if he can really whip it down.

[Lurker]

All good fast bowlers dont have a leap Lurks. It is surprising that you have claimed to have seen no fast bowler bowling so close to the ground. Glenn Mcgrath ' date=' Wasim Akram , Michael Holding and many more greats of the game didnt have any pronounced leap just before the delivery stride.[/quote'] Mcgrath is probably the same speed as Pathan so thats perhaps not a valid comparison.Holding yes I would concede you have a point. Akram too, but Akram was lot stronger than Pathan so he could use his shoulders lot more. I do think I might have been a little hard there on Pathan about his leap though. It is perhaps good to have a nice leap but maybe not neccessary.

[King]

Akram was more leaner in his young days Lurker and also didn't have the kind of pressure Pathan is going through now. The media glare and the hype was not huge then. I have few videos of Akram not even given more than say about 5 overs in an entire test match (1997 I think). Now Pathan is under the glaring eyes of the media and every move of his is scanned. These days the Indian and Pakistani cricketers seem to enjoy their cricket less. The players can't complain though, they make so much moolah they won't mind the lime light.

[Ram]

Mcgrath is probably the same speed as Pathan so thats perhaps not a valid comparison.Holding yes I would concede you have a point. Akram too, but Akram was lot stronger than Pathan so he could use his shoulders lot more. I do think I might have been a little hard there on Pathan about his leap though. It is perhaps good to have a nice leap but maybe not neccessary.

Mcgrath's speed is often under-estimated Lurks. He was in the mid 130's and there and therabouts most of the times. And you would be surprised to know that Zaheer was actually told to reduce his leap. It was because , the leap would provide the bowler with the most of the zip in the ball and as the spell went by , Zaheer would get tired , the leap would get smaller and hence , the balls would lose venom here is an excerpt from the article , quoting T.A.Sekhar " Zaheer, a rhythm bowler, tended to jump too high when he could not get into his groove. “He was not getting the timing right in his load-up, and he was attempting to compensate for this by jumping too high,” says Lillee. The left-armer’s leap, almost two feet high, was putting enormous strain on his knee and groin. A paceman’s jump should blend seamlessly with his action. Sekar says, two of the greatest pacemen ever, Glenn McGrath and Fred Trueman, jumped little. Zaheer was asked to reduce his leap, be conscious about this aspect of his bowling at all times. He was better off for it." This is the full article. http://www.sportstaronnet.com/stories/20070707506600400.htm

[King]

The problem with cricketers these days is the lime light. With the lime light comes the pressure. Firstly the players are expected to play quite often and over it the expectations of the public knows no bounds. They want a bowler to bowl well every time and a batter to get runs every time. It is impossible to live up to the expectations of the public. A decade or two ago players that were thought to be talented or good enough were persisted. As I mentioned above Wasim Akram didn't end up being great in the first couple of his years of international cricket. He had players like Imran and Miandad to guide him. Similarly Waqar was groomed by Imran and Wasim. With the lack of experience bowlers now in Pakistan their pace bowling has also suffered. India had Srinath around for a while and he did guide Zaheer and Nehra. Just then too much cricket took a toll on both Zaheer and Nehra. Now there is no real spear head for India and a lot of young bowlers don't really have an experienced bowler in the ranks to guide them. It's good to see they have employed a full time bowling coach now. I remember Rahul's game was no where near what it is right now but he had someone like Azhar and Tendulkar helping him out. There is lot of tricks and tips that is only known at international stage. If you don't believe me, you can watch a DVD of Rahul's, Tendulkar's, Laxman's, Sehwag's or even Ganguly's batting and you will see although they have different stance their initial reaction is the same. Each one of those batters mentioned above don't move an inch other than patting the bat down but they put the bat down just before the bowler leaps in the air to deliver the ball. Just at that point in time the back lift happens, a little initial movement (back or front depending on the pitch and conditions) happen and they bring the bat down exactly at the same to time the ball best. How do I know this? Just assume one of the legends of cricket tipped me. Similarly there are so many things that aren't taught at domestic level. A young bowler or a batter that is good enough should be persisted despite few failures like the old times. Unfortunately that is not going to happen by the looks of it.

[Ram]

Some excellent insights there Ravi ! :thumbs_up:

[Lurker]

The problem with cricketers these days is the lime light. With the lime light comes the pressure. Firstly the players are expected to play quite often and over it the expectations of the public knows no bounds. They want a bowler to bowl well every time and a batter to get runs every time. It is impossible to live up to the expectations of the public.

Quite a fair point that Ravi. It reminded me of something similar in Hindi movie arena. Sometimes back I had read an interview of Amitabh Bacchan where he was asked how succeesful he would be today? He said not as much as he was back then. Reason simply being back then(read 70s, 80s) a movie was waited for, songs heard on radio, no TV(or atleast no movies on TV), no cable, no internet nothing. People would actually go watch a movie before making a judgement. Today they have all seen parts of it, either as songs, or scenes or reviews even before the movie comes out. Yes certainly scrutiny is lot more these days. xxx

[King Tendulkar]

Not interested in his net bowling prowess. Its all bull media sound bites to keep his profile up. Its time for crapthan to shut up and deliver in domestic cricket for a sustained period and then we can talk about india return. There are a lot of pacers at moment. My money is on Ishant Sharma he is the man to watch! He is tall and quick especially for 18 year old. He has been tremendous in FC cricket and will get A LOT BETTER!

[omf52]

so is thr a chance pathan will be selected for the england ODIs albeit a small one?

[gator]

NO

[omf52]

we could really use pathan's swing bowling in england. and plus we get an extra batsman...