A colossus in making

Yeh world hai na world, yahan do type ke log hote hain. ek jo zero se start karke 100 tak jaate hain. Dusre jo 100 se start karke bas aage chalte hi jaate hain.

Irfan Pathan finds himself in the second league, certainly an elite one. His brave 93 on a tough Kotla strip just made his case stronger. Since his very first series in Australia at an early age of 18, he has improved leaps and bounds and it seems there is no end. Sky is the limit.

Not too many bowlers get a chance to make their debut on fast, relatively bowler friendly pitches with some bounce like that in Adelaide. The manner in which he deceived Matthew Hayden with a beautiful away going delivery to earn his first test wicket was just a glimpse of a star in making. Though he ended up with a match figure of 1/160, he impressed the pundits with his lethal swinging deliveries. On any other day with some luck, he would have easily come up with a five wicket haul. But that was just the beginning of an audacious tour for him. He was the highest wicket taker in the one day series with a bagful of 20 wickets in 10 matches. Not a bad show!

But the big one was just around the corner. The Pakistan tour. India had never won a test match on Pakistan soil, leave aside a test series victory. Cometh the opportunity, cometh the man! The heroics of the batsmen made sure that Indians were not losing the test series. But batsmen can only save a test match. It is the bowlers who win the game for the team. Irfan, yet again, showed his hunger for wickets and demolished the Pakistani top order by picking up 12 wickets in the series on pitches that responded only to batsmen and few spinners, but certainly not to the fast bowlers. One can understand the biased nature of the pitches by the mere fact that as many as 7 centuries were scored in the 3 test series including a majestic 270 by Dravid and a mammoth 309 by Sehwag. He even showed his potential with a bat in his hands and scored a crafty 49 in the second test match. But the party was not yet over for Pathan in that tour. It seemed that everything was going right for the man. He played a crucial role in the ODI series victory. He spearheaded the Indian bowling attack thoughout the tour. Such is the influence of media in this part of the world that even a modest effort can lift you to a height never achieved before. He became a hero overnight and was a household name in less than two months.

But, the higher you fly, the faster you fall. After a successful season, he seemed to have lost the touch. In the very next season, the ball stopped swinging for him and the same person started looking like a club bowler. There was murmuring in the media about Pathan being just another bowler who bowled brilliantly in few matches and then faded away. But success is how high you bounce after hitting the bottom. After a lean patch of six odd months, he came back with a handy performance against Bangaladesh and Zimbabwe. Though those performances against minnows were nothing to boast about, those late swinging deliveries had started working for him again. He had started plotting those beautiful curves with the ball again. Those performances certainly induced confidence into him. The man was back. It was the time Greg Chappell started experimenting with the team with Irfan being at the core of experimentation. Not only did he bowl brilliantly under the guidance of wily Chappell, he also came good with the bat. He has started showing the glimpses of being an allrounder. His half centuries every now and then confirms his potential as a batsman. The confidence with which he played Murali can make a top order batsman proud. He has come up with performance everytime Chappell and Dravid experimented with him. Be it batting at number 3 in ODIs or opening in tests, he has grabbed the opportunities with both hands. He has taken batting higher in the order like a duck to water. One can sense the potential in this man while he bats. He has more than a decent technique to succeed with head right on top of the ball, playing closer to the body with still head and eyes on the ball while making contact. He is not a pinch hitter who goes out, lofts the ball over the rope for a couple of times and gets out. Once he passes 20 run mark, he looks to play safely like a top order batsman trying to convert those 20's into 50's and 50's into 80's.

Though it is very early to tag him as an allrounder, he is certainly not just another tailender. The captain and the coach needs to groom him as a potential batter and should let him flourish. His bowling has improved day in and day out. He is learning the tricks to bowl on murderous subcontinent pitches. He is not a Mcgrath when it comes to machine bowling and he is not a Shoaib or a Lee when it comes to bowling fast. But he has certainly bowled well within his limitations. He has a thinking head on his shoulders and given the talent he has, it seems that this man will serve Indian cricket for a long long time.