Sushil Pathak

In the ongoing India Vs England series, India has been sweating over Zaheer Khan’s fitness. He has been India’s bowling spearhead for quite some time now. There is no denying that this stylish left hander can deceive any batsman on any given day, given he is fully fit. He has proven this in many series, home and away. But unfortunately, in this much hyped ongoing series of India Vs England, he picked up a hamstring injury and not sure weather or not he will play second match.

First of all, Zaheer khan is that type of bowler, who can swing the bowl both ways. India are playing away in England and the English condition is known to be very suitable for such bowlers. He could get batsmen into trouble very early and swing the game in India’s favor right from the word go. This is exactly what he did in the first test match before he sustained injury, much to the relief of England batters. He removed both the openers on the very first day and left England camp quite worrying. But after he was removed from the bowling attack, the other bowlers looked very ordinary and that’s when England batters started to dominate. Though inexperienced praveen kumar looked dangerous at times and went to take a five for, England had no probelm facing him most of the time. Meanwhile, the danger man Kevin pieterson struck double century which showed the bluntness of Indian attack in Zaheer’s absence. To make the story short, India lost the match. It all started with Zaheer’s inabilty to bowl because of injury.

Also, England opening batsmen and captain Andrew Strauss, once known as English run machine, is quite vunlerable to left arm paceman. Khan could be a perfect nightmare for him. Like I mentioned before, he was acutally caught by sharma off Zaheer’s bowl in the first inning. So, if Zaheer khan could bowl in the second game, he would definitely have an edge over Strauss.

There is no substitution for experience. If exprienced Zaheer will be back in the squad , he is sure to cause early troubles for what looks like England’s rock solid batting line up. Let’s hope that he will be back and we fans will have a very competitive test match on the card.