The rise of Zaheer Khan, the greatness of Kapil Dev

Zaheer Khan had a great tour of NZ and raised his credentials not only as India's best current pace bowler in test matches, but also one of the three best. The other two being Kapil Dev and Javagal Srinath. The comparative figures of these three at the end of their 65th test are given below.

Bowler	T	I	O	M	R	W	BBI	BBT	Avg	ER	SR	5WI	10WT
Kapil Dev	65	105	2301.2	462	7048	251	9/83	11/146	28.07	3.06	55.0	18	2
Javagal Srinath	65	118	2479.2	587	7104	233	8/86	13/132	30.48	2.86	63.8	10	1
Zaheer Khan	65	119	2160.2	440	7107	210	5/29	9/134	33.84	3.28	61.7	7	0

It is obvious from above that overall Zaheer Khan is now India's 3rd best pace bowler and his record is improving in the last 2-3 years.

Even now, Kapil Dev stands supreme above all others. His record deteriorated in the later stages of his career with the strike rate dropping by over 9 balls per wicket and average bloating up by 1.6 runs per wicket. This was countered somewhat by significant improvement in the economy rate.

Neither Srinath nor Zaheer ever got close to Kapil's peak strike rate of 51.1 in his 24th test, Srinath's best was 60.8 in his 55th while Zaheer peaked at 60.3 in his 49th. At the same point in all their careers, the gap is still significant.

Between Srinath and Zaheer the numbers are favourable enough for Srinath to take the 2nd position. But Zaheer's record is improving from an intermediate decline and he could close the gap to match Srinath. Catching Kapil is another matter altogether.

This just goes to show how significant Kapil Dev was to Indian cricket if one adds his superior fielding and great batting skills. Inspite of Sachin Tendulkar, Kapil is by far India's greatest cricketer. In tests he has 40% of Sachin's runs and a World Cup. Sachin would need @174 wickets to be in the same league and win a World Cup as well. And if one goes by a per match contribution, the gap is larger esp. in Tests. In Limited Overs it is probably slightly tilted towards Sachin, but the World Cup deficit could dent that.