INSIDE CRICKET

West Indies and Pakistan have produced many great pace bowlers. Malcolm Marshall, Joel Garner, Ian Bishop, Waqar Younis, Wasim Akram, Shoaib Akhtar and the list goes on. One of the most complete pace bowlers to have played the game in the modern era is Wasim akram. After his retirement Pakistan has struggled to find a replacement for him. He was one who could swing the ball both ways, bowl scorching Yorkers and sharp bouncers and of course he could reverse swing the old ball too at sharp uncomfortable pace. But now they have a found a replacement in Mohammed Aamir. The brand new fast bowling sensation from Pakistan resembles Akram in many ways. He is no novice with the bat too. If handled with care, he could be next big thing to have happened to Pakistan cricket. Recently the young lad from Pakistan took his first five wicket haul against the Australians. The haul made him the second youngest fast bowler at 17 years and 257 days to take five wickets in a test innings. The fact that it came against a highly formidable Australian batting line up speaks loads about the character of the fast bowling sensation. Surely, one can safely say that the lad belongs here and can make it big in the test level.

The pitch at Feroz Shah Kotla in Delhi received a lot of criticism during the championship league t20 tournament that was held recently for playing slow and low. Millions were spent to infuse life into the pitch. But what led to the pitch fiasco is the fact that it was not ready to host a one day international match. The grass that had been planted to improve the pace and bounce of the wicket had not gelled with the soil. This led to the dangerous uneven bounce in the wicket. The ground officials may have tested the wicket by bouncing some balls off the track and checking for true bounce but no test can substitute the test of an international bowler, bowling at 130-140 km per hour.  The curator himself had said earlier that the pitch at Feroz shah kotla is not yet ready for international cricket. And no practice match or Ranji trophy match was played to check how the wicket played. All these factors led to the Delhi pitch fiasco. This has left the Delhi district cricket officials on a sticky wicket. It was very abash to see an international match getting abandoned due to unfit playing conditions. Now not only has the BCCI been fined by the ICC, Delhi may now lose all the matches scheduled to be played in the world cup to some other avenue.

In the recently concluded bilateral series between India and Sri Lanka, India thumped Sri Lanka by seven wickets to seal the series. India was playing the match without their batting mainstay’s Yuvraj Singh and M.s Dhoni, their captain. Still India managed to chase down a target of excess 310 runs. It was good to see the young and dynamic Virat Kohli coming good at a crucial juncture, especially after India had lost early wickets. With Sachin and Viru back in the pavilion, Kohli played brilliantly alongside Gambhir to ensure India’s victory over Sri Lanka. Kohli has been accepted by everyone as a good batsman. He led India to victory in the u-19 world cup. He played reasonably well for his IPL franchise, royal challengers Bangalore. He has been in and out of the Indian team and has had a couple of good knocks. But this century under pressure for a winning cause against the Lankans should firmly establish his place in the Indian middle order. We can expect bigger things from this talented cricketer if he manages to maintain his composure in the international scene. He is also electric in the field. So Kohli can positively contribute to the Indian fielding as well. It would be interesting to see what the future has in store for him and Indian cricket. Exciting times lie ahead for the Indian cricket team.

Indian team has had in its ranks, many great openers. Gavaskar-Sri kanth, Sachin-Sourav and Sachin-Sehwag batting pair have produced many great starts to India. After the advent of Gambhir in the side, the Gambhir- Sehwag combination became the most devastating pair in world cricket. This was at a time when Sachin was injured. Ever since since Sachin came back to the side, Gambhir has been playing one drop. Now the question that lingers in every one’s mind is which is the best opening pair for India? Gambhir is in the form of his life. He has been in staggering form in tests. In t20’s, Gambhir along with Sehwag orchestrated India’s world cup triumph in t20 world cup’s inaugural edition. Most of Sachin’s great performances have playing opening. Sehwag has an ordinary record playing as a middle order batsman. Many feel that gambhir’s purple patch is getting wasted as he is not opening the innings in one day internationals. The Indian team is sure in a dilemma on which the best pair is to open the batting for India. But this is one confusion that the Indian team would love to think about. There was a time when there not a reliable opening pair for the side. But now the team has two pairs to juggle with. Clearly there are more players waiting to open for India and the fact asserts India’s   bench strength. Indian cricket is definitely on a roll.