You Don’t Have To Go Crazy About Trying To Find A Left-Armer: Zaheer Khan
Former India pacer Zaheer Khan has said Team India should not go overboard with their search for a left-arm pacer.
One of the reasons behind India’s recent domination across formats is the impressive displays by their pace-bowling department. The likes of Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Shami, Ishant Sharma, Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Umesh Yadav has formed a formidable pace lineup for India and the recent success in Australia and New Zealand is a big proof of that. But despite the pacers’ fine show in recent times, the team-management has not looked content and the reason is the absence of a quality left-arm pacer.
Ravi Shastri and his colleagues feel that the addition of a left-arm pacer will make the attack more strong and provide the much-needed variation in the attack. But so far, the search has not bore any desirable result. Khaleel Ahmed was tried out in recent months but without much success. The selectors recently dropped him for the upcoming home series against Australia.
And amidst all this, Zaheer Khan, arguably the finest exponent of left-arm pace bowling in the country, has suggested that one shouldn’t go ‘crazy or overboard’ if the bowler in question is not ready for the challenge.
“If you have that variation (left-armer’s), it’s certainly an advantage but you don’t have to go crazy about trying to find a left-armer. It is all about contributing to team’s cause. Left-arm pacers are natural talent and you don’t have control over when you will get one,” Zaheer Khan told PTI.
For Khaleel, Zaheer had a word of advise. The legendary pacer said that the youngster should learn from his experienced teammate Jasprit Bumrah.
“For Khaleel, it’s still early days in his career. Talent-wise, he is there but at this level, it’s all about how quickly you can learn and adapt to pressures of international cricket. Look at Bumrah and how he has evolved as a bowler and you get a comparison,” he said.
“Bumrah has learnt a lot and is always adding new things to his armoury, which is very important and bowlers like Khaleel need to take inspiration from. Spend more time with Bumrah, ask him questions,” added Zaheer.
