It is one of the most enduring mysteries in Indian cricket. The inclusion of veteran Ashish Nehra in India’s Twenty20 squad and the exciting Barinder Sran in the One Day International squad for the tour of Australia has once again revived a long-standing puzzle – with the exception of Zaheer Khan, why has India failed to unearth a world-class left-arm fast bowler?
To be fair, this problem is not just limited to India. It is only with the recent blossoming of Mitchell Johnson and Mitchell Starc for Australia, Wahab Riaz for Pakistan and Trent Boult for New Zealand that there seems to be an assortment of left-arm fast bowling riches in the cricketing world. In fact, before the arrival of Pakistan's Wasim Akram in the late '80s, only two left-arm fast bowlers could lay claim to greatness. West Indies great Garfield Sobers was one of them, but he enjoyed that status mainly because of his supreme all-round skills. The other was the outstanding Alan Davidson, who played for Australia in the '50s and is widely regarded, along with Akram, as the best left-arm pacer of all time.
As for India, the first left-arm pacer of some note was the towering Ghulam Guard. He only played two Tests for India, making his debut against West Indies in Bombay in 1958. Guard took three wickets in his first Test, with two of his victims being Garfield Sobers and Conrad Hunte. Unfortunately, he faded away, playing only one more Test, in 1960.
Taking the shine off
The next name on the list was a player more renowned for his exceptional close-in catching rather than his bowling abilities. Eknath Solkar was an all-rounder, and like Sobers, could bowl both pace and spin. Unfortunately, his career coincided with the best spell of the Indian spin quartet. He would only be called on to bowl a couple of overs to take the shine off the new ball before the spinners took over. Hence, despite his all-round and fielding capabilities, Solkar’s bowling figures at the international level are decidedly unimpressive – only 18 wickets in 27 Test matches with a best of 3/28.
A few years later, in 1974, Karsan Ghavri arrived on the scene. Ghavri shared many qualities with Solkar – he too could bowl both slow and fast and was also a useful batsman. Unlike Solkar though, Ghavri had a longer, more distinguished, but still a rather unremarkable career, finishing with over a 100 Test wickets and playing in two World Cups.
The arrival of Zak
Ghavri’s retirement in 1981 led to a long absence of left-armers from the Indian team. There were some near misses though – Sunil Valson was in the 1983 World Cup-winning squad but never played a game for India, merely becoming an answer to a quiz question. The arrival of Zaheer Khan in 2000 finally provided some hope. Despite being plagued by injuries throughout his career, Khan proved to be a world-class left arm fast bowler, displaying a shrewd cricketing intelligence as his bunny, former South African captain Graeme Smith, would readily testify.
As Zaheer Khan held up one end, there were several young left-arm dashers who all made an immediate impact on the international circuit but struggled thereafter. Ashish Nehra made his Test debut even before Khan, and for a period of time was one of the most promising young left-arm fast bowlers. He was particularly impressive during India's march to the final of 2003 World Cup. But injury took its toll and Nehra could never reach those heights again. He has made a swansong of sorts though with a creditable performance in last year’s Indian Premier League and has earned himself a call-up to the team for the Twenty20 series against Australia. Unfortunately, Nehra will probably never be the world-class bowler that many thought he would be in the early 2000’s.
So near, yet so far
Far worse is the story of Irfan Pathan. When he burst into the Indian team in 2003 at the age of 19, he already had the cricketing world at his feet. The comparisons were many: some thought he was the Indian Wasim Akram, while some reckoned he could take Kapil Dev’s mantle. And for the first few years, everything turned to gold. He was the chief enforcer in India’s famous wins against Pakistan in 2004 and even more delightfully, his batting also began to show promise.
But just like the others on this list, Pathan’s career also went into a steep nosedive. Ironically, it began with his batting – then-coach Greg Chappell tried to reinvent Pathan as an all-rounder but the move backfired. Pathan’s pace went down and though he made a brilliant comeback by helping India win the 2007 World Twenty20 title, he never met his full potential. It was yet another case of lost talent, just like Rudra Pratap Singh who also faded away after a bright spell.
As India face Australia in a much-anticipated limited overs series, there is much excitement over a new entrant to the Indian squad – 23-year old Barinder Sran. A former boxer from Punjab, Sran is still very raw and also supposedly very fast. While talk would be premature, should Sran take after Zaheer Khan rather than some of the others on this list, Indian cricket would be very well served.
