Swing in the tail

A common sight when India are fielding is of Pathan swinging the ball, trapping the batsmen plumb in front.

	HAVING A BLAST
	Irfan Pathan is the leading wicket-taker in ODIs in the world this year — 36 wickets in 18 matches at an average of 23.19.
	He also has the best strike rate — of 27.4 — in the world this year (minimum qualification: 15 wkts).
	He was the leading wicket-taker in the tri-series in Australia — captured 16 wickets.
	He was the leading wicket-taker for India in ODIs (8 wickets at 17.87) and second-highest in Tests (12 at 28.5) in the series against Pakistan.
	He's the leading wicket-taker in the ongoing Asia Cup — 12 wkts at 16.25.
	(Compiled by Manoj Kumar)

The commonest sight when India are fielding in the Asia Cup is that of Irfan Pathan swinging one back into a batsman, trapping him plumb in front.

This inswinger is so lethal that few batsman have had the time to put the bat in line. Moving your feet away is out of the question, and anyway, if the batsman managed to do that, the verdict would be bowled instead of lbw.

Pathan has had the experts eating out his hands. Ian Chappell gushes about his ability to bring the ball back, while his athleticism and attitude have been up for praise almost all through his short career.

"He is a very talented bowler, its God's gift that he has," Sachin Tendulkar says of Pathan. "Not many left-armers swing that consistently and it's something which he should value and I'm sure he knows that. He's only 21 and going to get better."

It seems like not so long ago when Baroda seemed to be the nursery for fast bowlers. There was Zaheer Khan, already an India star, then the two Irfan Pathans, senior and junior, and Rakesh Patel.

While it would be too much to expect all four to make it big, having two out of four bowlers from one state side in the Indian XI on a consistent basis is quite a feat.

The Pathan we talk about is the junior one, a young man from a modest background who is now a pin-up boy of Indian cricket. His exploits in Australia and Pakistan made him a superstar, but that has not in any way affected his form, fitness or fire.

Here, in the Asia Cup, almost every player was initially seen to be rusty and off-form. Pathan's fast bowling colleague were no different. Zaheer fell to an injury, while Laxmipathy Balaji struggled throughout. Ashish Nehra was good when he played, but mostly he did not.

No such problems for Pathan. He has struck in every match, and the only time he was not successful, relatively, was the first-round league game against Sri Lanka in Dambulla, where he went for 49 off ten picking up just one wicket.

But his tally is impressive. He has 12 wickets from five games, with the best figure of three for 28 coming in the very first game against the UAE, when most of his team-mates were struggling to find their feet.

Pathan also seems to have filled the void of a bowling all-rounder very well. Among the specialist batsmen, only Sourav Ganguly bowls seam-up, while Tendulkar, Virender Sehwag and Yuvraj chip in with the slow stuff.

What India required down the order was someone to come in and score some quick and vital runs. In that context, Pathan's 38 against Pakistan, and his 63-run partnership with Sachin Tendulkar, is invaluable. It paved the way for India to snatch the bonus point.

In Pathan, India have found a tremendous talent, someone who can serve the country for long.

But many a youngster has fallen on the way, dazzled by the limelight and blinded by fame and money. If Pathan can see through that, he’d have arrived — as a potential great of the game.