Rise and fall of the Indian pace bowler

[Nostromo]

For the past 10 years or so, Indian cricket seems to be full of pace bowlers who appear out of the blue showing a lot of promise and then inexplicably disappear into the sidelines. In fact, Srinath seems to be the only pacemen who served India with some consistency in the last decade. Bowlers like Paras Mhambrey, Venkatesh Prasad, Ashish Nehra, Lakshmipathy Balaji, Irfan Pathan etc have all flattered to deceive at one time or the other. Even the current favourites, Zaheer Khan & Ajit Agarkar have been in and out of the team during their careers to date. As for the new kids on the block, it seems as though Munaf Patel, Sree Sreesanth and the two Singhs are in a game of musical chairs as to who gets selected to play. I don't think that sort of policy will help the team in the long term.

[vvvrulz]

Not to mention Avishkar Salvi, T Kumaran, Tinu Youhannan, Amit Bhandari, Debashish Monanty... and we could go on all day.

Of that lot I think Balaji is particularly unlucky. He looked to have cemented his spot before an injury cut in, and he hasn't been back since, and might never be the way its looking. Its a real shame that the Indian selectors have so little faith or persistance in their pace men, how are cricketers supposed to grow and mature into fine performers without experience?

[Nostromo]

Originally Posted by vvvrulz

Not to mention Avishkar Salvi, T Kumaran, Tinu Youhannan, Amit Bhandari, Debashish Monanty... and we could go on all day.

Oh, I recall Debashish Mohanty! Wasn't he the guy with the staring eyes and crazy action? Then there was another bolwer named Saddiqi who was little more than a passing show.

[Andy Mellon]

Originally Posted by Nostromo

For the past 10 years or so,

Longer than that I'd wager. I remember that the attack against Graham Gooch in 1990 was decidedly poor.

Looking at the attack, I clearly remember Kapil Dev, Ravi Shastri and Manoj Prabhakar (39 tests, but probably a better bat than bowler!)

However, Sanjeev Sharma and Narendra Hirwani played just 19 tests between them. Obviously, Hirwani was a spinner, but Sharma was certainly not international class. Another example of the same vintage would be Chetan Sharma, who could be pretty useful and was decent with the bat as well, but as I recall he was a little too expensive for test cricket.

Anyway, my point is that this isn't just a modern phenomenon for India. Maybe there are just too many seam bowling options who are fairly similar, so there's plenty of options to replace an out of form player with a not-so-good one, meaning that the good players never quite make it? Its a difficult problem to adequately explain, tbh.

[Nostromo]

Originally Posted by Andy Mellon

Anyway, my point is that this isn't just a modern phenomenon for India. Maybe there are just too many seam bowling options who are fairly similar, so there's plenty of options to replace an out of form player with a not-so-good one, meaning that the good players never quite make it? Its a difficult problem to adequately explain, tbh.

Well put. Yes, it is certainly not a new problem. In the 60s & 70s, India went through the so-called era of "great spinners" where guys like Prasanna, Bedi, Chandrasekhar & Venkataraghaven were relied upon to bowl sides out after part-time 'pacemen' had roughed up the new ball for a few overs. The plan occasionally worked, but more often than not, they struggled under unhelpful conditions. It soon dawned on the Indian selectors that they too must find quality pace bowlers to be a true international force and for some years the gifted Kapil Dev filled the void lionheartedly. But nowadays, they seem to hire and fire pacebowlers at the drop of a hat without trying to nurture a good few and allowing them to mature. No pace bowler can always come good and there are bound to be bad days; the idea is to recognise talent and give them more chances. IMO Prasad and Nehra are two who should have been given those chances and encouragement.