MUMBAI, 14 December 2007 — It needs no great analysis to fathom why even a total of over 600 in an innings of a Test match does not guarantee a victory. This has happened more than once to the Indian team in the just-concluded series against Pakistan at home.
The main reason for this lack of success was the palpably weak bowling attack. In fact, this malady attended both teams, for Pakistan to allow the opposition to score so many runs and for India, to be unable to dismiss the rivals twice to achieve victory. Injuries, before and during the series, to main bowlers were indeed a huge hurdle to overcome.
The Pakistan team, which was said to have had a stronger attack, suffered a setback when their main strike bowlers, Mohammad Asif and Shoaib Akhtar were declared as doubtful starters. While Akhtar was able to make the trip to India, Asif had to drop out.
However, during the tour, Shoaib Akhtar broke down frequently with aggravation of several of his ailments. The fact of Akhtar being far from fit did not hurt Pakistan so much in the one-day series, as it did during the Test matches. The team was further handicapped when their most consistent bowler Umar Gul had to go back after the ODI series.
With the team going into the Test matches with just four bowlers, it had to consequently toil manfully with just three effective specialist bowlers and that was asking for too much against India’s strong batting lineup.
India, for their part, had far too many casualties just when they most needed a strong attack. After having won the first Test comfortably and almost pulling off another win in the second, India lost the services of their entire pace attack, comprising of Zaheer Khan, R.P. Singh, Munaf Patel and Sree Santh.
A long-time Test discard, Irfan Pathan and two newcomers, Ishant Sharma and V.R.V Singh, had to be hurriedly summoned for the third Test at Bangalore. This move turned out to be a blessing in disguise for Pathan and Ishant Sharma. The former showed his qualities of being a potential all-rounder by notching up his maiden Test century. Ishant captured five wickets in the first innings to put himself in the reckoning for selection for the tour of Australia. This brings us to the knotty question of frequent breakdown of pace bowlers. The patent excuse that is given out is excessive international cricket. But how does that explain away the recurrence of an injury of a bowler after playing just a few matches?
The crux of the matter is the tendency of players to conceal their niggling injuries in order not to miss selection. These niggles aggravate when they are physically tested. Little do these players realize how they unknowingly penalize the whole team. The Pakistan team’s present woes, born out of the lack of fitness of Shoaib Akhtar is a classic example of this dreaded predicament.
