Indian fast bowlers - where art thou?

Jaydev Unadkat

With the recent comments by Dhoni on the ineffective bowling line up and how he urged his fast bowlers to use their brains more took me on a stats hunting journey through the Under 19 World Cup Squads, since the 2000s. And since the 2014 Under 19 World Cup is just around the corner, it would be interesting to look at players who progressed through the ranks after playing for the junior team.

What was even more interesting was to take a look at the bowlers from around the world, who represented their nations at this level. With the recent bowling performances in what might be considered as lively enough pitches in New Zealand, the skipper seems to have trouble marshalling his fast bowlers around to contain the opposition.

Surprisingly his spinners have fared better than the fast bowlers. One wonders whether India has always been a bowling unit that has relied too much on their batsmen coming good, rather than looking like a solid unit, strong enough to run through the opposition batsmen. Since the departure of Javagal Srinath and apart from Zaheer Khan’s heroics, there has never been a bowler consistent enough to stay long in the international scene for India.

I went back to the squads that various nations sent for the U19 World Cup, dating back from 2000. Interestingly, a lot of the names that played for their U19 teams went on to perform national duty sooner or later.

2000 ICC Under-19 Cricket World Cup

It was held in the island nation of Sri Lanka, where the Indians edged out the mighty home team in their own backyard to win them their first U19 trophy. Yuvraj Singh was named the player of the tournament, and soon he would don the national colours. So did Mohammad Kaif, Ajay Ratra, Venugopal Rao and Reetinder Sodhi. Funny that there were no fast bowlers that went on to play for India in the future.

Let’s take a look at some of the junior players who went on to represent their country at the highest level.

Australia : Michael Clarke, Nathan Hauritz, Mitchell Johnson, Shaun Marsh, Andrew McDonald, Ed Cowan and Shane Watson played for the senior national team.

New Zealand - James Franklin, Ian Butler, Jamie How, Brendon McCullum, Shanan Stewart and Nathan McCullum

Pakistan - Shoaib Malik, Danish Kaneria, Imran Farhat, Taufeeq Umar, Faisal Iqbal, Hasan Raza, Imran Nazir, Yasir Arafat, Irfan Fazil, Humayun Farhat and Mohammad Sami

South Africa - Graeme Smith, Jacques Rudolph, Johan Botha, Albie Morkel and Thami Tsolekile (Jonathan Trott also represented South Africa but went on to play international cricket for England)

Sri Lanka - Jehan Mubarak, Prabath Nissanka, Kaushal Lokuarachchi, Kaushalya Weeraratne, Muthumudalige Pushpakumara, Akalanka Ganegama and Thilina Kandamby

West Indies - Ryan Hinds, Marlon Samuels, Jermaine Lawson, Narsingh Deonarine, Brenton Parchment and Sewnarine Chattergoon

Zimbabwe - Mluleki Nkala, Travis Friend, Gavin Ewing, Greg Lamb, Alester Maregwede, Tatenda Taibu, Sean Ervine and Hamilton Masakadza

In 2002

Australia - Cameron White, George Bailey, Beau Casson, Daniel Christian, Xavier Doherty, Shaun Marsh and Mark Cosgrove

Bangladesh - Aftab Ahmed, Mohammad Ashraful, Nafees Iqbal, Talha Jubair and Mashrafe Mortaza

Canada - Ashish Bagai and Umar Bhatti

England - Tim Bresnan and Samit Patel

India - Parthiv Patel and Irfan Pathan

Kenya - Hiren Varaiya, Rajesh Bhudia, Nehemiah Odhiambo, Alfred Luseno, Ragheb Aga, Morris Ouma and Kalpesh Patel

Namibia - Stefan Swanepoel and Burton van Rooi

New Zealand - Ross Taylor, Michael Bates, Neil Broom, Rob Nicol and Jesse Ryder(Peter Borren also represented New Zealand but went on to play international cricket for Netherlands)

Pakistan - Salman Butt, Junaid Zia, Azhar Ali, Najaf Shah, Faisal Iqbal, Hasan Raza, Yasir Arafat, Irfan Fazil, Humayun Farhat, Mohammad Khaliland Umar Gul

Scotland - Kyle Coetzer and Moneeb Iqbal

South Africa - Hashim Amla, Ryan McLaren, Rory Kleinveldt and Imraan Khan

Sri Lanka - Jeewan Mendis, Upul Tharanga, Dhammika Prasad and Farveez Maharoof

West Indies - Dwayne Bravo, Ravi Rampaul, Darren Sammy, Narsingh Deonarine, Gavin Tonge, Donovan Pagon, Shane Shillingford and Lendl Simmons

In 2004

Australia – Tim Paine, Callum Ferguson, Moises Henriques and Steve O’Keefe

Bangladesh – Ashikur Rahman, Nafees Iqbal, Mahmudullah, Naeem Islam, Nadif Chowdhury, Talha Jubair, Shahadat Hossain, Enamul Haque jnr, Nazimuddin, Nazmul Hossain, Dhiman Ghoshand Aftab Ahmed

Canada – Umar Bhatti, Trevin Bastiampillai, Durand Soraine, Karun Jethi, Shaheed Keshvani and Mohammad Qazi

England – Samit Patel, Ravi Bopara, Tim Bresnan, Alastair Cook, Steven Davies, Luke Wright and Liam Plunkett

India – Robin Uthappa, Suresh Raina, Rudra Pratap Singh, Shikhar Dhawan, Dinesh Karthik and Ambati Rayudu

Ireland – William Porterfield, Kevin O’Brien, Gary Kidd, Gary Wilson, Greg Thompson and Boyd Rankin (Eoin Morgan also represented Ireland but went on to play international cricket for England)

New Zealand – Daniel Flynn and BJ Watling

Pakistan – Khalid Latif, Mansoor Amjad, Fawad Alam, Zulqarnain Haider, Wahab Riaz and Riaz Afridi

Scotland – Kyle Coetzer, Moneeb Iqbal, Gordon Goudie, Omer Hussain and Ross Lyons

South Africa – Colin Ingram, Vernon Philander, Vaughn van Jaarsveld and Roelof van der Merwe

Sri Lanka – Angelo Mathews, Farveez Maharoof, Suraj Randiv, Kosala Kulasekara, Kaushal Silva and Upul Tharanga

West Indies – Denesh Ramdin, Kirk Edwards, Xavier Marshall, Lendl Simmons, Lionel Baker, Assad Fudadin and Ravi Rampaul

In 2006

Australia – Moises Henriques, Jackson Bird, Aaron Finch, Usman Khawaja, Matthew Wade and David Warner (Tom Cooper also represented Australia but went on to play international cricket for Netherlands)

Bangladesh – Mushfiqur Rahim, Shakib Al Hasan, Raqibul Hasan, Tamim Iqbal, Dolar Mahmud, Suhrawadi Shuvo and Mehrab Hossain, Jr.

India – Piyush Chawla, Cheteshwar Pujara, Rohit Sharma and Ravindra Jadeja

Ireland – Gary Wilson, Andrew Poynter, Gary Kidd and James Hall (Eoin Morgan also represented Ireland but went on to play international cricket for England)

New Zealand – Martin Guptill, Roneel Hira, Tim Southee and Hamish Bennett

Pakistan – Sarfraz Ahmed, Anwar Ali, Nasir Jamshed and Rameez Raja

Scotland – Richie Berrington, Moneeb Iqbal, Gordon Goudie and Calum MacLeod

South Africa – Dean Elgar, Richard Levi and Wayne Parnell (Craig Kieswetter also represented South Africa but went on to play international cricket for England)

Sri Lanka – Angelo Mathews and Thisara Perera

West Indies – Andre Fletcher, Sunil Narine, Kieron Pollard, Nelon Pascal, Jason Mohammed, Leon Johnson, William Perkins and Kemar Roach

Zimbabwe – Sean Williams, Chamu Chibhabha, Graeme Cremer and Keegan Meth

In 2008

Australia – Phillip Hughes, James Pattinson, Josh Hazlewood, James Faulkner and Steve Smith

Bangladesh – Nasir Hossain, Rubel Hossain, Dolar Mahmud and Suhrawadi Shuvo

England – Steven Finn, James Taylor, Chris Woakes and Stuart Meaker

India – Virat Kohli, Abhinav Mukund, Saurabh Tiwary and Ravindra Jadeja

Ireland – Andrew Balbirnie, Paul Stirling, Andrew Britton and James Hall

New Zealand – Kane Williamson, Trent Boult and Tim Southee, Corey Anderson

Pakistan – Ahmed Shehzad, Mohammad Amir, Usman Salahuddin, Junaid Khan, Umar Amin and Umar Akmal

South Africa – Wayne Parnell

Sri Lanka – Dinesh Chandimal, Lahiru Thirimanne, Thisara Perera and Dilshan Munaweera

West Indies – Adrian Barath, Darren Bravo, Kieran Powell and Devon Thomas

Zimbabwe – Kyle Jarvis and Njabulo Ncube

In 2010

Afghanistan - Noor-ul-Haq, Javed Ahmadi, Aftab Alam, Izatullah Dawlatzai and Hamza Hotak

Australia - Mitchell Marsh and Josh Hazlewood

Bangladesh - Anamul Haque, Mominul Haque and Abul Hasan

Canada - Hiral Patel, Parth Desai, Ruvindu Gunasekera, Hamza Tariq, Nitish Kumar, Usman Limbada and Rustam Bhatti

England - Jos Buttler, Danny Briggs, Joe Root and Ben Stokes

India - Jaydev Unadkat

Ireland - Andrew Balbirnie, Paul Stirling, Graeme McCarter and George Dockrell

New Zealand - Doug Bracewell, Corey Anderson and Tom Latham

Pakistan - Ahmed Shehzad, Raza Hasan and Hammad Azam

West Indies - Kraigg Brathwaite, Jason Holder

Zimbabwe - Tendai Chatara and Natsai M’shangwe

Only 3 fast bowlers among the Under 19 World Cup squad went on to play for the senior Indian team – Irfan Pathan, RP Singh and Jaydev Unadkat as of now, but none of them are anywhere near the selectors radar, except for Unadkat.

Fast bowlers who went on to play for the senior team and are currently playing in the international arena have been highlighted. This raises a lot of questions on the fast bowling scene in our country. What has happened to the many fast bowlers that represented India in the U 19′s over the years? Only three of them have even made it to the highest level.

A lot of question remains as India march ahead to the battle down under next year. None of the fast bowling options from the 2011 WC seems to be anywhere in the picture. As of now, the road seems bleak for Dhoni and it seems like he is waiting for a fast bowling miracle to happen soon, and so are a billion people.