5 reasons why Zaheer Khan will add value to the Indian bowling line up

#3 Can mentally develop the bowlers

Zak always looked to outthink the batsmen

When the chips were down, it was always Zaheer Khan towards whom the faith was directed – and he almost always delivered. Be it Ganguly or Dhoni, he was always the John Watson to the captain’s Sherlock Holmes.

It is not just the wickets that he took, but the timing of it. Under pressure, he always performed, he always delivered. One has to look only as far as India’s game against England in the group stages of the 2011 World Cup. Andrew Strauss took the form of an exploding sun that was consuming everything with its fire as he was batting at 158.

And then Zaheer struck with a classic Zaheer Khan delivery: a toe-crashing Yorker with a hint of late swing. Before Strauss could fathom what was thrown at him, his stumps had been knackered and the bails were off. He was gone. In the end, India managed to salvage a tie out of the game.

He was not a wicket-machine like, say, Mitchell Starc, but his response in the most adverse of situations is what made him one of India’s best ever bowlers.

Even when it came to his personal adversities, he faced them head-on. Like mentioned in the earlier slide, when he was dropped from the team back in 2006, he didn’t give up and kept working hard to find a place back in the team.

For a fast bowler, injuries and subsequent drop in form is a common pattern – and Zaheer is one of the very few people who could guide a bowler suffering from such a hardship.