Like tigers, Indian fast bowlers are an endangered species

He took twelve wickets in six matches, including 4 in the World Cup final. This number ten batsmen, along with Harmeet Singh sweated it out for seven overs to score the last ten runs against the mighty Pakistan for a thrilling one wicket victory in the quarter final. He is none other than the speed star from Patiala, Sandeep Sharma. I can see a hint of Javagal Srinath in his bowling action and and he is equally good when he is padded up. He has played 2 under 19 World Cups for India. Sandeep started as a batsmen, but coach Manish Bali persuaded him to take up fast bowling. Decades ago, Australian legend, Dennis Lille persuaded a Mumbaikar to take up batting and the rest is history.

Sandeep Sharma comes from the Praveen Kumar school of bowling. Not everyone is gifted with the ability to swing the ball both ways but he can do this at 135kmph. It looks like he has mastered bowling at the death and has raised a few eyebrows among the domestic circuit. I still remember Sandeep Sharma diving to the right (horizontally) in his follow through, almost covering the breadth of the pitch, 3 feet above the ground to save a single. A single. This was his second over of the second spell, defending a target of 223 against New Zealand in the semi finals. And for me, this is ‘commitment’ in the true sense of the word.

The selectors must think about the Indian pace attack beyond Zaheer Khan. Lately, cricket has been a batsman’s game, but there were some bowlers who made their names as genuine fast bowlers. The likes of Joel Garner, Richard Hadlee, Waqar Younis, Jeff Thompson, Michael Holding created mayhem in the batsman’s mind. In 2003, when Srinath retired, we had a young, promising, enthusiastic Zaheer Khan (even an Ashish Nehra) ready to lead the Indian pace attack. We have too many fast bowlers on paper currently and unfortunately, all are half cooked. We had Pankaj Singh, Jaidev Unadkat, Manpreeth Gony, Sudeep Tyagi, Joginder Sharma, Avishkar Salvi and the list goes on.

Even Pakistan has a long list of bowlers but of completely different quality. Every bowler, looks like the graduate of Waqar Younis University of Bowling. If there is anything that India can learn from Pakistan, then certainly it’s about nurturing fast bowlers.

We need to mould and maneuver the young seamers like Sandeep Sharma, Parvinder Awana, Vinay Kumar and Varun Aaron. It’s time for the selectors to think beyond the Zaheer Khan era. It’s palpable that Zaheer cannot feature in the 2015 WC and we all know that Praveen Kumar has a bad relationship with the old ball. So, getting a suitable successor for Zaheer Khan will define Indian bowling for the next decade.

‘Change may be risky, but not changing is riskier’. MS Dhoni, the captaincy material (all thanks to Sachin Tendulkar) is the product of change. Crickets contemporary product ‘T20′ is an outcome of change. Hence, Indian bowling needs a change.

If a Manpreet Gony and a Yusuf Pathan can get an International call after the first IPL, if a Wriddhiman Saha can get a slot in test eleven, if a Rohit Sharma can make it to the playing eleven (in ODIs) even after incessant failure, if a 70% fit Ishant Sharma can make it to the test squad (New Zealand Series), if Piyush Chawla can make it to T20WC Squad, then here is Sandeep Sharma, throwing himself around with the attitude of a teenager trying to impress his girlfriend, 100% fit, bowling with sheer passion. I see no harm in giving this teenager a chance to represent the nation.

Tigers are getting extinct in India, so are our fast bowlers.

As Michael Holding says it,

‘You cannot become a Fast bowler, just with a long run up

‘.