Shortlist of Indian fast bowlers for the 2015 cricket World cup

Siddarth Kaul/Rahul Shukla/Mohit Sharma

You would ideally need 5 fast bowlers and a specialist spinner as part of your bowling compartment for the World Cup taking into consideration that Jadeja keeps his place.

Siddarth Kaul is a deceptive bowler who can touch the early 140s every now and then and is a bit more quick than what Bhuvaneshwar Kumar is. In the past IPL edition for Delhi Daredevils, he opened the bowling a couple of times and was impressive. Bowled with good pace and also has the ability to move the ball both ways. It’s difficult to think whether Indian selectors have him in their minds and are they mindful of his capabilities. Sandeep Patil was present for the Duleep trophy final between South Zone and North Zone and before a premature end to day 2 proceedings, Siddarth Kaul castled Abhinav Mukund with a good in-swinger and I hope, Patil makes a note of it.

Rahul Shukla is a Rajasthan Royals’ product, who bowls at a good pace and can crank it up in to the 140s. He bowled one of the inspiring bowling spells in the recently concluded CLT20 2013 against Chennai Super Kings and in fact, went on to dismiss Dhoni. On a more amusing note, Shukla is from Jharkand, the home state of MS Dhoni.

He is rather inconsistent with his line and length but if you talk about a tearaway fast bowler, Rahul Shukla could well be on top of that list. If IPL is a recognized platform for Indian Selectors, they could well have a look at this lad in depth and he is young too.

Mohit Sharma was easily Chennai Super Kings’ most impressive bowler. He was an unknown commodity for a lot of IPL viewers but proved to be one of the sensations of IPL 6. He is limited with his capabilities but does move the ball around and will not fall into the category of a ‘FAST BOWLER’ but, if you are considering your options for the world cup in 2015, Mohit Sharma should certainly be part of your plans.

That is how much I have been able to pick up on some of the potential fast bowling talent across the country.

Nobody is sure if Zaheer Khan would return to the Indian side as its pace spearhead. Vinay Kumar, I wouldn’t say has it in him to cement a spot in the side, nor does he possess the capabilities that you want in a bowler for Australian conditions. We haven’t yet seen anything of Ishwar Pandey apart from his Ranji Trophy exploits and we don’t know whether he finds himself in the selectors’ scheme of things. Praveen Kumar also has been oblivious even to the greatest of Indian cricket followers, who keep themselves updated about Indian domestic cricket.

Hopefully, we will get to see a good fast bowling attack and not a medium pace bowling attack to take to the land of Kangaroos for defending our title. Good luck Patil and company.