The cricket legend on the best bowlers in Indian cricket
It was very difficult to formulate a list of my favourite Indian bowlers
because so many bowlers I reviewed seem very good. Besides, I am not
really a very good student of the game. I do not study it regularly, watch
styles, tabulate scores and performances.
I have just tried to assess the performance of various Indian bowlers that
I consider to be very good, and finally selected this list based on what I
consider to be their strengths and weaknesses. My list attempts to span the
spectrum from 1950 to 1999, although I myself have never seen some of the
people I have included actually play.
This list is not absolute, and I might well have left out some genuinely
deserving Indian bowlers by oversight.
Bishen Singh Bedi: Both Bedi and Pras had the same sort of flight to
their balls. Bedi was an intelligent bowler who used his brains a great
deal for his game.
E A S Prasanna: Except that he was right-handed and Bedi was
left-handed, I don't see too much difference between their games. They were
both intelligent players, arranged their fields to their choice and played
to them. If they did not succeed, they would try to change the field and
bowl accordingly. I never did all that, I just concentrated on my
lengths. I needed just 2, 3 specific places where I depended on fielding.
S Venkataraghavan: Also an intelligent bowler, but much faster than
Pras and Bedi. Like them, he too was a good student of the game.
Salim Durrani: He could have been one of the best allrounders of Indian
cricket, but never reached that status. He had all the right qualities to
be a truly world class player, but did not use them properly. He never went
far because he was too moody, and that got in the way of his true class. If only he had kept his head on his shoulders all the time,
there would have been no stopping him. I have played with him, and this was
my assessment of him even then. He did do a lot, and won some matches for
India, but that was nothing compared to his true potential.
Vinoo Mankad: Both he and Gupte are eternal greats, in my opinion.
cricketers all over the world have praised them.
Subhash Gupte: Sadly, since there was no television in those days,
I never could watch Mankad or Gupte play. But all that I have read and
heard about these two convince me that they definitely belong on my list. I
have also spoken directly with people who have played with them, and they
too say the same thing.
Anil Kumble: I don't watch much cricket these days. So I do not profess
to know very much about the present lot of bowlers. But Kumble and Srinath to deserve to be on this list. Kumble has a good line
and length to his balls. He is fast, and does not spin the ball at all. He
has a good nip off the wicket that can trouble any batsman in the world. He
is consistent, and can cope equally easily with one day cricket and Test
matches.
Javagal Srinath: Even with his shoulder problems, he has come through on the
top, and proved to be one of the most dangerous bowlers in the world.
Srinath has an excellent reputation amongst cricketers from
other countries as well.
As told to M D Riti
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