Irfan Pathan, L Balaji, Sreesanth, Munaf Patel, RP Singh, Zaheer Khan, Ishnat Sharma, Umesh Yadav, Varun Aaron and this list looks ever-increasing. Over the years, Indian fast- bowling machinery, has fizzled out every now and then. Indian fast bowlers’ fitness has always been under scrutiny. In the last one decade, India has produced some good fast bowlers, but all of them have followed a similar pattern; come, perform well, get injured and disappear.
Couple of years ago, India had a great pool of young fast bowlers that burst on the scene but within a year after that, the injuries started creeping in. There is lot of cricket being played and fast bowlers have to work twice as hard as some of the batsmen would.
India doesn’t have a very rich history when it comes to producing great fast bowlers and this is why there’s lack of ‘fast bowling culture’ in India. When it comes to indian fast bowlers, injuries are inevitable. Many fast bowlers like Munaf, Irfan, RP etc. emerged as genuine fast bowlers, but became medium pacers due to injuries.
This has been the trend of fast bowlers in India:
Emerge
Good start
Sustain injuries
Get dropped
Make comeback
And get injured again
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There’s no obvious solution to this problem. Indian cricketers have access to all the facilities in the world (thanks to their rich board), but still- injuries are inevitable. There’s a desperate need of building a fast bowling culture that will allow fast bowlers to flourish and stay injury free.
India are lucky to have a good bunch of young fast bowlers, who are genuine speedsters and bowlers like Umesh Yadav, Shami Ahmed and Varun Aaron, can bring the change that is needed and become the trendsetters as far as the fast bowling is concerned. But, for this to happen, it’s important that these lads are looked after with utmost responsibility, and their workload should be monitored very carefully.
