zaheer khan's injury and team india's bowling woes...

shared by straight point on Friday, August 07, 2009

its official now...zaheer khan is injured...we finally know it coz he underwent major shoulder surgery in south arfica...so much so for the professionalism of bcci in being transparent with injuries...etc...

zaheer khan rose in the ranks of indian cricket with his sublime form since his come back to international cricket...specifically that fifth morning spell of him in mohali when he cut thru australia's middle order like hot knife goes thru butter...to kill any possibility of australia chasing victory target...

he was unofficial bowling captain of team india and his absence will hurt our chances very badly in about to begin champions trophy...you could see him fielding at mid off or mid on urging the strike bowler...giving valuable tips...helping him sort out what kind a delivery he should bowl...helping him to keep his focus on the task at hand etc...other bowlers too seem to acknowledge him as leading bowler...and respect him...

with his injury the bench strength of indian pace attack has been exposed...more so coz ishant is struggling to find right line and length for limited over games of late...munaf being munaf...rp singh etc refusing to raise their bowling to next level...and sreesanth being out of favor...

since harbhajan singh must play every game as leading spinner...india's penetration in middle overs too becomes questionable as i don't think in south africa dhoni will include two spinners in final xi...though i firmly beleive that your best bowlers should take on the field and if adding another 'full time' spinner in the ranks can improve your crucial middle order play in odis then its better choice over opting for a weak pacer...

now the opposition batsmen will look to attack ishant even more to crack the game open at the outset and hence he and team india will be under tremendous pressure to not only take wickets but keep runs under control...

at the same time our batsmen too will be under more pressure to score and score big to first make-up for the absence of zak...and then to give leeway to the waywardness of rather inexperienced pace attack...more so coz opposition teams will use 'batting powerplay' to hit india where it will hurt most...

so all in all...it will be interesting to see how our pace bowler respond to the situation... whether they will see it as added responsibility...or whether they will see it as an opportunity waiting to be grabbed with both hands to make mark when the cream of cricketing world will be competing against each other to decide who is going to be the champion...

2 comments:

Gaurav Sethi said...

It's a good time for Ishant to get some treatment too.

In Zaks place, gonna be Nehra leading the pack, wonder when he'll breakdown. It's been two T20 tournamnets so far, mind boggling.

They gotta play Mishra. If not for the bowling, then that lower order batting. Anyway, that's why they play Bhajji.

straight point said...

yes i too will closely watch ishant specially coz following champions trophy is australia odi series and for india to do well at home we need ishant to be fitter, and in his top form...

but maybe the look of ponting at other end can change all that... :)

as grounds of south africa are bit shorter i expect bhaji to bowl nothing but darts...that's where dhoni needs to decide whether he wants to go for to contain runs or take wickets which will anyway slow the scoring...

ojha, mishra, bhajji is the order for me...

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