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Vikram Bedi Delhi

Cricket fans of India are quick to exult and equally despair. As of now, Indian cricket culture is wracked by self-doubt and dissatisfaction. This is because the team has, of late, habituated itself to getting dumped out of one-day tourneys. Sachin Tendulkar’s play is more vulnerable than venerable. Yuvraj Singh’s gets all deathly when faced with genuine fast bowling. Virender Sehwag’s eye-hand coordination and footwork is missing. MS Dhoni’s batting is losing its sting. VVS Laxman, perhaps the least athletic cricketer ever, is too insecure to express himself in his beautiful, singular way. It cannot be denied either that Mohammad Kaif and Suresh Raina are not quite worthy of the great legacy of Indian batsmanship. Admittedly, too, Rahul Dravid’s batting is not feeling entirely well either, for now.

Still, there should be more joy among Indian fans than is currently evidenced. Here’s why: the Indian bowling line-up is more exciting today than ever before. They were stupendous in the very one-dayers that the Indian batting collectively contrived to lose recently, much to the disgust of that too-precise example of the fair-weather sports fan—the Indian cricket ‘supporter.’ For those of us who do not regard cricket one-dimensionally (with batting alone counting), the bowlers’ excellence in South Africa, often bordering on the heroic, has been no surprise.

There’s skill aplenty: witness Munaf Patel gets left-handers out leg-before from over-the-wicket all because he gets in so close to the stumps, Glenn McGrath-like. Please note S Sreesanth’s intensity, variety, pace and, despite the filmi histrionics, sheer intelligence, was most evident in Tests. There’s also RP Singh’s beautiful action, measured and clean, yielding accurate swing, deceptive pace and length. Let us not forget VRV Singh, puppy fat and immaturity notwithstanding, with his steep bounce and tight stump-to-stump line, at pace.

The new and improved Zaheer Khan finally seems to have the fitness, motivation and self-control to go with his bravura aggression. There are still Ajit Agarkar, Ashish Nehra and Irfan Pathan to consider, the last being too buoyantly good to be down for very long. And, most excitingly of all, there are at least three or four other seamers plying their trade in the Ranji Trophy who would not disgrace the India cap, if picked.

Almost as exciting is the continued excellence of Anil Kumble in test cricket, nowadays even abroad, thanks to his subtle new variations. Moreover, we now have a great third (second, perhaps?) spinner in the supremely stout Ramesh Pawar, complete with garish red sports-sunglasses, with his wagering, canny and orthodox off-spin. Piyush Chawla, albeit young and still limited, is also an exciting prospect for the lovers of leg spin.

This crew is numerous, varied and good enough to routinely take 20 wickets even in away tests (as they have shown on the recent Caribbean and South African tours.) They are capable of making-up for the inevitable failures of our over-exalted batting superstars, if not always then at least often enough. None of them is of blinding, ‘all-time great’ quality, and will from time to time be shown up by good batsmen, especially on flat one-day wickets; but they will maintain the standard of Indian bowling at an unprecedentedly higher level in all pitch conditions, home and away.