'By no means am I done' - Zaheer Khan

Zaheer was the most creative bowler in Test cricket from 2007 to 2010 till he lost his fitness. He really made the old ball talk and it was superb watching him bamboozle the batsmen with his tricks. He not only lost his fitness but also took his place in the side for granted. Among the three Indian bowlers who have taken more than 200 wickets, Zaheer was ahead in terms of skill. He definitely had more variations than Kapil and Srinath, the latter who first bowled a slow ball in international cricket 10 years after making his debut As a kid, i counted every wicket Kapil took and in as an adult Zaheer wickets gave me the same joy and it will be shame if he doesn't take 300 wickets. Honestly i feel he has two years of cricket left in him and that too if he gives up playing one-day and T20 internatinoals.

At full fitness, Zaheer is one of the most skilled bowlers in world cricket, short of that - he is a liability. He has been unable to take wickets without the new ball for ages. It has looked like he is in cruise-control over the last 2 years. His fielding is woeful & I suggest to him, that he drops T20s & ODIs from his programme & concentrate on Tests. He can still IPL, heaven forbid he miss out on the pay day, but drop 20/20 Internationally & ODIs. I think this would give him more time to work on fitness which he is sadly lacking. For India's sake, I hope he does come back fit & firing!

Zaheer is the one of the best bowler India has got, if he beleives that he can comeback and play another 3-4 years , it is very good as it will be help ful for youngsters he has to built Indian Fast battery of Umesh Yadav, Varon Aroon, Ishant Sharma, Sreesanth, Dhawal Kulkarni, Siddharth Kaul, Ishwar Pandey and Shami Ahmed and his help will also useful to develop our Swing bolwers Irfan pathan, Bhuvanesh kumar, Sandeep Sharma. For this he needs to quit odis and t-20s for here on, if he wants to still play 2015 world cup he can make come back in ODis in late 2014. and he needs to opt out of IPL for atleast 2 seasons, and play some matches in county to bring back his fitness and confidence.

Zaheer Khan deserves to spoken in the same breath as the great Kapil Dev and Javagal Srinath. He has been a tremendous servant of Indian cricket but unfortunately father time has caught up with him as it does for all of us. Having said that IMO he has a lot to offer to this Indian side not just as a bowler but also as a mentor and a guide for some of the young quickies. If Zaheer believes he has few more years to offer to Indian cricket we should respect that but I think he should bid adieu to shorter formats and focus only on Test Matches and better if he can stop playing IPL and this is only to keep himself fresh and injury free. To not use Zaheer's experience and knowledge would be a cardinal sin and something India can ill afford.