Hot Spot | Chetan Narula
We marvel in the genius of Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid and VVS Laxman. Our fathers swore by Sunil Gavaskar, Gundappa Viswanath, Dilip Vengsarkar and Mohammad Azharuddin. Their fathers thought as much about Vijay Manjrekar and Vijay Hazare. In all these years if the myriad generations of cricket lovers in this country have been united in praise for a bowler, that was either Kapil Dev or Anil Kumble. Even when you add the spin quartet to this list, majorly pack hunters, the number of batsmen named above still exceeds bowlers.
The point is simple, really. Indian cricket has always been carried high and low by its batsmen. Period! Much of the reason for this spiteful loss to England can be attributed to our batsmen failing to get past 300 even once in six innings. Yet to win you need to take wickets, ten in ODIs and T20s, and twenty in Tests. One is pretty sure anyone who is remotely connected to this sport knows this truth. Even so the lack of runs evokes a stronger surprise, nay shock and awe, than our bowlers' collective inability to bowl out the opposition. Continue reading below
Irony though is that India attained the Test number one ranking thanks to some overtly good bowling performances. If there is one series to be pointed out, it has to be their 2007 tour of England. Zaheer Khan, RP Singh and Anil Kumble had bowled fewer overs in three Tests to win back then, in complete contrast to the hammering this time around. MS Dhoni's team then took advantage of a flawed rankings system and stayed atop while remaining unbeaten at home, as Test series wins away from home didn't come easily enough.
A few occasions come to mind when exceptions were made; Perth in 2008, Hamilton in 2009 and then Durban in late 2010.
These three victories are important for two reasons. One, they allowed India to improve a previously poor record away from home, in turn improving their Test ratings.
And two, more importantly, they help us set a parameter against which the Indian attack's current struggles can be judged. Because truth be told, each of them are quite recent in memory. Dhoni deployed the same bowling composition in both New Zealand and South Africa.
Harbhajan Singh routed the Kiwis and Proteas, aided comprehensively by Zaheer Khan and Sreesanth, whilst RP Singh and Irfan Pathan made their last Test appearances in 2007-08 after beating the Aussies on their juiciest turf. Somewhere in there Ishant Sharma made his presence felt regularly.
Since then all of them have been in regress mode. Pathan and RP vanished from the scene, the beating handed out by South Africa at home too much to handle. Sreesanth has never been able to control his wild side and much continues to depend on which side of the bed he gets up.
The most peculiar case was that of Ishant. Hailed as the next big hope, the charms of IPL engulfed him and cross batted thwacks in perfect batting conditions upset his fabled rhythm that once troubled Ricky Ponting. The excesses of T20 cricket also reared its ugly head in Bhajji's case. Playing all formats of the game, day in and day out, with the burden of lead spinner to boot, he forgot how to enjoy his game.
Yet none of this is the root cause to India's teething bowling problems, and we only have to look at Zaheer for that. How did he grow up from a bulky left-arm pacer to a lanky seam bowler, nipping the ball both ways? He was always fragile, that comes with his weight which he seemingly can't get rid of.
But when fit, he was the solution to all of Dhoni's problems, taking up the mantle of Javagal Srinath and leaving a mark of his own. True homage has to be paid here for Indian cricket is back to the nineties. They are dependent on one man, only this time he is a bowler and not a spinner, but a quick one. When did that happen last in our history?
In 2004, Zaheer signed for Surrey. His hamstring injury prevented him from playing much but he knew what he had tasted. Two years later he played an entire season for Worcestershire, notching up 600-plus overs. He worked it all out by bowling and bowling, and then bowling some more. In contrast, since the ECB didn't allow its players to freely take part in the IPL (beginning 2008), young Indian bowlers haven't been given permission to sign up for counties, depriving them of crucial experience.
Put two and two together, and the answer to how the Indian bowling attack got so poor, will lie in the summation.
