Are Indian medium pacers sustainable?

India has been seeing a plethora of medium pacers over the years. The nation which, down the years, has been known for churning out tweaking threats at an amazing frequency, much to the dismay of the opposition batsmen, is now steadily making a mark in the domain of the fast, though still not quite the furious.

With Kapil's Devils lifting the Prudential Cup in 1983 in England, it was quite obvious that faster bowling in India would receive the much needed impetus. Madan Lal, Mohinder Amarnath and Roger Binny were quite innocuous, but these gentle medium pacers sincerely and enthusiastically stuck to neat line and length- enough to nag batsmen into losing their wickets.

For sure, gone were the days when the new ball was given to the Karsan Ghavri, or even Sunil Gavaskar, with the unwritten purpose to remove the polish off the red cherry, for the spinners to take over with all their guile – when the national selectors could afford to do without a successor to Amar Singh and Mohammad Nissar. Barring the erratic World Cup hattrician Chetan Sharma, one emerged reliable enough to take over from Lal, Amarnath and Binny, to complement Kapil. It was Manoj Prabhakar, who not only came up as a more than decent medium pacer, especially in the shorter version of the game, he proved to be a dependable No. 8 batsman, graduating to open the Indian batting. Together with Ravi Shastri, he was an exciting all-round prospect, though neither flowered into being greats as per world standards.

Kapil's mantle fell on Javagal Srinath, initially known for his raw pace and never-say-die attitude. Though he was occasionally hit to all parts of the park (which he looked to, and at times, did, reciprocate), he soon earned fame as having an uncanny knack of providing breakthroughs, especially with the new ball, in both versions of the game and both home and away. He was being ably supported by his Karnataka mew-ball partner, Venkatesh Prasad. Srinath's inswingers and Prasad's leg-cutters ensured that Indian bowling was usually far from being flayed in the initial overs. They ensured creating enough edges to be pocketed by the likes of Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid and Sourav Ganguly in the slips, not to forget the ever-agile Mohammad Azharuddin - a safe bet anywhere close to the bat. The Karnataka duo added enough weapons to their armoury to stem the run-flow in the final ODI overs, as also picking up wickets at regular intervals in Tests. No wonder, India's tour of England in 1996 is memorable not only for the batting exploits of Ganguly and Dravid, but also for the team discovering a new ball pair who could hunt in tandem.

But Prasad was especially prone to injuries - a menace that soon looked to get the better of Javagal Srinath as well. 'Too much cricket' was well and truly taking its toll. There were literally 'many' in the reserve bench - Atul Wassan, Vivek Razdan, Salil Ankola, Subroto Banerjee, Prasanth Vaidya, Bhupinder Singh, Doddanrasaiah Ganesh, David Johnson, Abey Kuruvilla, Robin Singh(Jr.) - all donned India colours. Either they started with a bang only to wither away in a whimper, or they experienced a series of in-n'-outs, or worse, were deemed promising and incapable and doomed since day one.

Amit Bhandari, Thirunavukkarasu Kumaran, Iqbal Siddiqi, Tinu Yohannan are out of the fray for all practical purposes. Laxmipathy Balaji, known for his exploits with the ball and heroics with the bat, to go with his winning smile, and Ashis Nehra - who can forget his match-winning 6/26 against Engalnd at Kingsmead, Durban in the ICC World Cup 2003? - are still remembered by the national selectors for their past performance. But they have done little in domestic cricket to enhance their reputation. Either they are horribly ordinary, or cooling their heels with yet another injury.

Debashis Mohanty and Harvinder Singh were on a prowl at the Toronto Cricket, Skating and Curling Club, as they ripped apart the Pakistani line-up in the later half of the 1990s. Following suit to Anil Kumble's Perfect Ten in a Test, Indian cricket witnessed the feat in its domestic circuit, courtesy Mohanty; Harvinder is a crucial cog in the Railways wheel. While Mohanty can be Sidhuically branded as 'as dead as a dodo' on flat tracks, the national selectors might as well be sparing a thought or two for Harvinder, before they push Ishant Sharma into the big league.

Robin Singh(Sr.), always chipping in with both the bat and the ball, apart from his fielding heroics, was never a star, but always an able soldier for the war. Sanjay Bangar kept it tight with the ball, switching between watchful and whirlwind batting with élan, but never got an extended run. Reetinder Singh Sodhi, from the same batch as Yuvraj Singh and Mohammad Kaif, was no less exciting a prospect, especially since he had and still has, the makings of an all-rounder; but the team could accommodate only eleven. Jai Prakash Yadav, a later recruit, was a clone and microrepresentation of Bangar in many ways, an obvious exception being his sturdy stature and long hair, and a sad similarity being the even shorter run that he was given with the Team India in the Chappell-More era. It remains to be seen whether Joginder Sharma, proclaimed in a pacer's camp as one of the fittest medium pacers around in the Indian circuit, and showing potentials to be touted as the new Haryana Hurricane for his whirlwind willow-wielding, has the same fate.

Ajit Agarkar, unlike some of his contemporaries having similar skill-set, has continued to star in the Indian national side, especially in ODIs. Thinly built, and maintaining a teenager look, he goes for runs and picks up wickets. He's more economical these days, having greater control over his line and length, and ensuring that his front foot lands on the right place with greater regularity. And, no longer does he require to raise his bat on opening his account while batting, and he one of the few Indian speedsters who is an ever-dependable fielder. However, thanks to his frequent forays into off-form, apart from his niggling injuries, he's often out of reckoning to have an outing to out opposition batsmen.

The new breed, consisting of the likes of Zaheer Khan, Irfan Pathan, Munaf Patel, Shanthakumaran Sreesunth, Rudra Pratap Singh, Vikram Raj Vir Singh, is no different from the predecessors. They are way too inconsistent, which means that they are always lagging behind their international counterparts in terms of exposure at the highest level. Zaheer Khan has ploughed his way back to the national side after a stint in the wings, and not in the wilderness, as his short-time partner, Balaji. But Khan is at best only a shadow of what he was around the ICC World Cup 2003, as injuries and inconsistency continue to plague him. Irfan Pathan seems to have run out of fuel too soon. But since age in on his side, and since he is currently out of reckoning for lack of form and not of fitness, it'll be an injustice to write him off in a hurry.

The others have been there for too short a time or have done too little. Neither Rudra Pratap or Vikram Raj Vir exude the same aggression as reflected in their names; while RP had continued to remain out of favour until recently thanks to the selectors finding more flare in Patel and Sreesunth, one wonders what VRV can be expected to achieve with only occasional bouts of pace to go with consistently wayward line and length. An RP or Ranadeb Bose or Rakesh Patel, if not the all-rounder Joginder Sharma should definitely have got a look-in ahead of him. If VRV doesn't improve a lot and soon, he may well follow suit to the likes of Robin Singh(Jr.), Tinu Yohannan, who were dumped to doom once the terms of the selectors who selected them were over.

Physical trainers and physios like the Andrew Kokinos-es, Andrew Leipus-es and John Gloster-s need to show their worth in a way bigger than they have been known to do thus far, and so does the national selectors in the form of the Kiran More-s and the Dilip Vengsarkar-s. The Board of Control for Cricket in India should work in sync with the regional cricket bodies to take fitness and consistency to the grassroots to ensure India has a better pace battery.