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A question playing on every Indian’s mind is why Pakistan have always been blessed with quality pacers over the last four decades while on the other side of the border, India has struggled to achieve a decent quartet as far as the pace department is concerned.
Pakistan has produced many fast bowling legends like Imran Khan, Waqar Younis, Wasim Akram and Shoaib Akhtar. India on the other hand has produced just a handful of fast bowlers who can be labelled great. Apart from Kapil Dev, Javagal Srinath, Zaheer Khan and Ajit Agarkar, India has not been able to produce fast bowlers that could match the skills of their Pakistani counterparts.
There have been many fast bowlers like Irfan Pathan, Ishant Sharma, Debashish Mohanty and Praveen Kumar, who showed huge promise in their first few games but then lost their rhythm and ended up being just regular medium pacers.
The million dollar question is that why India being the second largest population in the world and BCCI being the richest cricket board is unable to produce fast bowlers while on the other hand Pakistan is able to produce fast bowlers like Mohammad Asif, Mohammad Amir, Umar Gul and the latest fast bowling sensation Junaid Khan while India continues to have problems in the fast bowling department.
Here are a few reasons for this dumbfounding difference:
1. Role Models: In India, every aspiring cricketer picks up the bat first before the ball. This is largely due to the fact that India has been blessed with great batsmen over the years. Hence, every aspiring cricketer wants to be the next Sunil Gavaskar, Sachin Tendulkar, Dravid, Laxman, Ganguly etc. While on the other hand, Pakistan has been blessed with great fast bowlers since their inception to the international cricket. If in India everybody strives to be the next Sachin, in Pakistan every aspiring young cricketer dreams on becoming the next Akram or the next Imran Khan. This has helped Pakistan find fast bowling talent and they have carefully nurtured them.
2. Dependency: Pakistan has always banked heavily on their fast bowlers to deliver them the goods; producing the likes of Imran Khan, Wasim Akram and Waqar Younis among many other, while India’s bowling strength has always been spin bowling. For two decades India extracted the services of Prasanna, Bedi, Doshi, Shastri, Venkatraghavan and Chandrashekhar, who are spin bowling legends. With so many great spinners coming together almost in the same era, India could afford only one fast bowler in the playing eleven and the second fast bowlers duty was fulfilled by the likes of Amarnath and Gavaskar who bowled a couple of overs with the new ball and then the spin quartet took over.
3. Pitch: As India has been blessed with quality spinners over the time, the pitches in India are mostly spinner friendly wickets, which in turn give little support to the fast bowlers. One cannot expect a Kapil Dev to be produced on the flat and turning surfaces of India. On the other hand, in Pakistan the playing conditions have always supported fast bowling which in turn incites the fast bowlers to bend their back in order to get better outcome.
4. Scouting: In Pakistan, the scouting network is much better than in India. Pakistan’s senior players are aware of the domestic talent and once they identify a potential star, he is properly nurtured and then after proper training included in the national squad. While in India, the talent even if found is not properly nurtured; the likes of Varun Aaron, Sreesanth and RP Singh for example. The BCCI has to form a proper scouting network and find those hidden talents and then nurture them such that they are good to go in the longest format of the game.
India has relied heavily on Zaheer and it’s high time they nurtured young talent.
Due to the aforementioned reasons, Pakistan has been blessed with great fast bowlers and India has always struggled to find the next Kapil Dev. Though now things seem to change for India, with the arrival of the likes of Umesh Yadav, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Varun Aaron and Shami Ahmed. All of them have shown their metal with the limited opportunities showered on them.
But the Pakistan Cricket Board deserves credit, for their scouting network is impeccable and so is their coaching methodology, with greats like Waqar and Wasim always ready and willing to help young fast bowlers with their most valuable tips.
The defeats in both England and Australia have made the picture crystal clear with regard to the Indian pace battery, which has long been dependent on Zaheer Khan but even he has seem to lost his rhythm recently. It is now high time for India to start preparing pitches with something for the fast bowlers, to encourage them and to make the Indian batsman adapt to such situations.
Let’s hope that things would soon start to change for India under the supervision of the newly appointed director Glen Mcgrath at the MRF pace academy.
