Life in the fast lane
Judhajit
25-Feb-2013
AFP
G.S.Vivek in the Indian Express believes it was the Indian fast bowlers’ ability to get the ball to reverse swing as early as the eighth over of the innings in Mohali that caught the Australians totally unawares.
On Wednesday, a day after the match ended, sources in the Indian team revealed that they had indeed managed to master a new brand of reverse swing in which, rather than waiting for the ball to scruff up naturally with passage of time and overs, the Indians managed to create that condition early. And all this, they stressed, was done perfectly within the rules of the game.
With Ishant Sharma and Zaheer Khan putting in stellar performances for India against Australia in the ongoing Test series, it seems India's reborn pace attack is benefitting from the legacy of the MRF Pace Foundation in Chennai. Dileep Premachandran in the Guardian talks about at how the Chennai rubber factory has given Indian pace its bounce as well as looking back at India's legendary fast men.
It just makes you wonder how much Srinath might have achieved if his career hadn't been such a stop-start one, if he'd played more than 67 Tests in 11 seasons. How might he have done with a John Wright or Gary Kirsten as coach, and in an environment where pace bowlers are cherished, rather than viewed as clods to take the shine off the new ball?