Is Umesh Yadav the next big bowler from India?

He can hardly speak a word in English and he has that raw, out-of-this world kind of expression on his face but Umesh Yadav can do one thing that most Indian fans have been desperately waiting for and that is, He bowls fast and I mean, consistently fast without looking as if he is really exerting himself. Playing for the Delhi Daredevils in IPL 2010, this young bowler from Bihar has been exemplary in his first stint in competitive cricket. Further, he has not even played for his state side on a consistent basis and yet, he can bowl steadily at around the 145 km/hr mark.If you are an Indian fan that much speed is perhaps the maximum that any Indian bowler has ever generated. If Yadav can put in some eye-catching performances in the domestic scene, it is just a matter of time before this lad will be seen sharing the new ball with Zaheer. Ishant Sharma must be thinking how fast can life turn around:(. However, he is still young and capable of making a comeback...at least, I hope so. There have been just too many disappointments in the past with the likes of Irfan Pathan falling apart. It is still a mystery what actually happened to the young Pathan who was supposed to be the next, Wasim Akram. However, there seems to be something more to Umesh than what meets the eye. Firstly, he doesn't really exert himself and yet, he hits the 140 Ks mark with regular ease. This does point to the potential of being quick in the league of someone like Brett Lee. But then again, these are very early days in his career and these are just the first impressions....keeping my fingers crossed. Further, his bowling action is such that he doesn't exert too much pressure on his back and lower limbs, something that has been the scourge for most of the quick bowlers over the last five years.

Afridi—no longer the Pakistani roaring tiger?

He has a tiger imprint on his bat and the bat reads “sher” too which essentially means a lion and that is the type of cricketer Shahid Afridi is believed to be—till the time he started complaining about the unfair treatment against him and his teammates in being ridiculed against in the IPL auctions. It was almost unbelievable to hear the usually ferocious ‘pathan’ complaining like a meek cat on an Indian FM channel. He even had the nerves to say that he believes his team has more fans in India than in Pakistan and thus, their participation in the IPL is vital!! I always counted Afridi along the likes of Saeed Anwar and Wasim Akram—players whose performance and on-field antics reached a new height every time they played against India. I always believed that Afridi must be on the Indian team’s most vicious, almost hated opponent, considering the amount of verbal abuse he displays against the Indians. It now seems that the lure of easy IPL cash has mellowed down the Pathani tiger—they do say money can make you do strange things, don’t they?

Grassy bowler, what's that Mr. Boycott?

This is with reference to Anderson's five wicket-haul against the South Africans, to take this team 2 -1 in the ongoing ODI series. I read somewhere Geoffery Boycott explaining Anderson as a Grassy bowler meaning any pitch that has a bit of grass and some moisture, alike the English conditions, were suited best for James Anderson. Well, you couldn't agree more> take away these basic ingredients and Anderson turns into another routine, straight length bowler, incapable of moving the ball in any possible way. He does remind a bit of Caddick of England, who was brilliant against any type of batsmen, including the might Aussies, every time an Ashes test match was played on a typical English pitch. I recall having watched many televised commentaries by Wasim Akram who often regarded Caddick as one of the best exploiters of the swinging conditions that prevail in England but a bowler with limited means when it come down to testing your skills against the brownish, slow pitches of the sub-continent, which essentially means that Caddick was short on learnings skills that were beyond the obvious and I think, reverse swinging the ball and bowling yorkers is what Akram has been referring towards.

The question of the Pathan brothers

It was ages ago that Irfan Pathan was opening the bowling for India, swinging every ball to such an extent that he was heralded as the next Akram. However, as things stand now, he has lost his pace, guile and the swing seems to have totally vanished. From being heralded as an all-rounder he has now been reduced to a bits-and-pieces whose performance even in the domestic circuit is nothing exemplary. It is a freefall as far as his career graph is concerned and similarly, his elder brother, Yusuf seems headed in the same direction. He was never a spinner to begin with, so his batting was supposed to be his USP but he seems like someone who is capable of delivering the goods only when the pitches are the kind wherein 350+ runs can be scored (ODIs) or for the T20 format and in that format too, he hasn't been outrightly impressive.