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.

Cricket - 2nd Test, Efficient Kiwis, Overconfident Indians

As the 2nd test unfolds, it looks more and more true that Yuvraj Singh is not a test match batsman. It also shows that Virender Sehwag is a predictable one. He will take risks no matter what the situation.

The Kiwis have always played international cricket based on a limited pool of talent. Their main weakness is the lack of depth in their teams. Due to this, they rely on their strengths which are

1. Efficienctly using their limited resources
2. Being tactically smarter than their opponents
   
3. Avoiding obvious mistakes

If one stays with them on these three fronts, their lack of depth gets exposed. Just watch them play Australia or South Africa. They more or less get muscled out.

The current Indian team has the depth but tends to loose ground on the above points. When they don't, they also dominate New Zealand like they did in the first test. This test, they have lost on all three counts with dropped catches, and rash shots.

The situation has been made worse with Dhoni missing. It costs India their best keeper by far, a strong lower middle order batsman and an inspirational captain. Kartik has already contributed a dropped catch. The gap between him and the next best options for captainship also seem collosal now.

As for Yuvraj Singh, there is no way to hide him after this test. He will have to play the innings of his life to make up for his lapses in this test to save his test career.

Greatest Pace Bowler since 1970

Below is a personal view of the greatest pace bowlers since 1970

Top Level (Bowlers who were the strike bowler in an already great bowling lineup)

• Malcolm Marshall - WI
• Dennis Lillee - Aus
• Waqar Younis - Pak

Second Level (Bowlers who were the 2nd choice in a great lineup or strike bowlers in a good one)

• Joel Garner - WI
• Curtly Ambrose - WI
• Glen McGrath - Aus
• Alan Donald - SA
• Wasim Akram - Pak
• Imran Khan - Pak
• Michael Holding - WI
• Richard Hadlee - NZ

As a crude ranking for me this would be

1. Malcolm Marshall
2. Dennis Lillee (looses for not playing in India)
   
3. Waqar Younis
4. Curtly Ambrose
5. Imran Khan
6. Michael Holding
7. Richard Hadlee
8. Glen McGrath
9. Wasim Akram
10. Joel Garner
11. Alan Donald

Below this rung I would place a lot of good bowlers, some of these would be

• Kapil Dev
• Ian Botham
• Courtney Walsh
• Bob Willis
• Jeff Thompson
• Andy Roberts
• Craig McDermott
• Sean Pollock

On a side note, during Australia's phase of domination 1994 to 2008, their opponents had

• Curtly Ambrose (4 years)
• Alan Donald (8 years though the last phase he was a shadow of himself)
• Wasim Akram (5 years, 10 tests with last test 1999 against them, again a shadow of himself after 1996)
• Waqar Younis (8 years, 8 tests with the last 3 when he was almost finished)

With the exception of Ambrose (3 years at his peak) and to an extend Donald (about 4 years at his peak), there was no quality pace bowler at the peak of his prowess in any opposing team.

Now with the emergence of new quality pacers like Steyn, Ishant etc. the contest is getting more even.

Competitive tennis, cricket in 2009

This looks likely to be a more competitive year in tennis. The days of Roger Federer being invincible seem to be over. Now Andy Murray has caught up, Nadal and Djokovic did last year and with 4 contenders for the slams with a few dark horses lurking as well in Safin, Roddick, Hewitt this year has a high chance of unpredictable results.

Cricket seems to be along something similar with other teams catching up with Australia as it comes down a level.