Zaheer chuffed to bits at seeing Avesh Khan bowl

LSG’s Avesh Khan (inset) dismisses RR’s Yashasvi Jaiswal’s with a yorker recently. Pics/Getty Images

This year's IPL has seen the return of the yorker, one of the most effective dot balls in any format of the game. When a fast bowler nails the yorker, he more often than not gets a wicket and that is the best dot ball ever. It was so good to see Avesh Khan, who with his natural inslanting deliveries, gets the yorker to perfection and stop the opposition in its tracks and secure a victory that looked unlikely till he got the ball in his hands. Zaheer Khan, the LSG mentor, who usually doesn't show much emotion was chuffed to bits seeing the way Avesh Khan bowled.

Young quicks need mentors

Last year Avesh Khan was turning out to be pretty expensive with his low full tosses but this year under the guidance of Zaheer he has discovered the yorker to the Lucknow team's advantage. It is also good to see Munaf Patel as a bowling coach because he was one of those with raw pace who also out thought the batters. That period of the early 2000s India had some terrific new ball bowlers and they are the ones who should be turned to, to guide the newer crop of quicks like Avesh, Mohsin Khan, Prasidh Krishna, Arshdeep Singh, Anshul Kamboj to name a few. Somebody like RP Singh, Praveen Kumar, Irfan Pathan, if he is available from his media commitments, would be able to guide our younger bowlers like Zaheer and Munaf are currently doing. Praveen Kumar for instance would be absolutely magnificent in teaching the bowlers how to swing the ball both ways. The biggest advantage for these bowlers is that the language that they speak would be pretty much the same that our younger crop of fast bowlers speak and therefore communication will be easy as well as the comfort level.

Also Read: "India should also withdraw from playing against Pakistan in ICC tournaments": Mohammad Azharuddin

Zaheer Khan

Bowl more to get fitter

These fast-bowling stalwarts of the 2000s will definitely not follow the biomechanic ‘experts' who, during the IPL, have the fast bowlers bowl no more than 18 deliveries in net practice so as to preserve their bodies. This, mind you, in a format that has the bowler bowl a maximum of 24 balls. No wonder so many of our other fast bowling prospects are now injured and are at the NCA recovering from their Injuries. The other reason could well be the weight training that these ‘experts' make our young quicks do to get them stronger. While that may make them strong enough to bowl the ball quicker, the lack of bowling practice means that when in the tension and pressures of the game where adrenaline can work the mind and muscles furiously and can result in the kind of muscular injuries that keeps them out of the game. Why are two of our brightest pace prospects, Mayank Yadav and Umran Malik, at the NCA and not playing for their franchises? Could it be because under the ‘experts' they are strengthening their upper torsos but not the legs, which are an integral part of being a fast bowler. Unless you run on the grass and not just on the treadmill, the legs aren't going to get ready for the grind of bowling more than 4 overs.

My shin splints

All those who knew me during our playing days may well be chuckling reading this because they never saw me run laps of the ground. I then had and still have a condition called shin splints, which made the muscles around the shins seize up if I ran more than a lap or two of the ground. So, I devised my own training method where after everybody had their fill at the nets, I would pad up again and go in the nets alone and pretend to play a shot and
then run three and then twos and ones and again twos and so got my legs ready for batting the whole day. We didn't have trainers during our day and thank God for that as we may have missed a match because of fractures but hardly any because of muscular

injuries. Biomechanic experts may not realise that Indian bodies are different than overseas ones and so there can't be a one size fits all kind of training. That's why the Zaheer Khans, Munaf Patels are important for our fast bowling prospects. Not only will they help the bowlers tactically but also see that physically they will get the kind of training that will keep them on the park much more than at the rehabilitation centre at the NCA.

Professional Management Group