Good news for Sunday. Bowling coach and former Australia pacer Bruce Reid rates the Indian bowling attack ahead of arch-rivals Pakistan. Talking to The Indian Express, Reid said today, ‘‘Australia have the best bowling attack followed by England who have a very good bunch of bowlers. This Indian attack would come in next, ahead of Pakistan.’’ He explained that the Indian bowlers swung the ball, something that very few bowlers in world cricket were capable of. ‘‘That is what excites me about this bunch. They swing the ball well, especially Irfan Pathan, who at 20 is exceptional. But he has a long way to go. He has a natural wrist action and he swings the ball prodigiously. He still needs to find some pace though. And that is where he could lose his way. The faster he finds out his limit the better for him.” Gushing, Reid also suggested that Irfan is on his way to becoming an all-rounder Team India can look forward to: ‘‘There is an all rounder in him.’’ But Reid expressed his disappointed about the way Zaheer Khan’s career has gone, placing the blame for his decline on the Baroda bowler’s shoulders alone. ‘‘Zaheer’s a wonderful bowler. But he is mentally lazy and after the World Cup euphoria slipped into a comfort zone. Then these young guys, (Laxmipathy) Balaji and Pathan came along and he failed to respond to the pressure.’’ Analysing Zaheer’s problems, Reid said, ‘‘He needs to lose weight and get fitter. He didn’t do enough running. When you return from injury you have to endure pain. There is not a single day when a fast bowler does not feel pain. Everyone of us — the coach, the captain, the physios, the trainers, former players — have spoken to him, but to no avail. He was the toughest to train. Zaheer needs to show his character now.’’ Reid, however, said that the Indian bowling had more positives than negatives at the moment, and it is up to them to make a mark in this meet and the upcoming challenges. He also pointed out that a worrying factor was that one loose delivery that Ashish Nehra and Ajit Agarkar bowl every over after bowling four-five unplayable ones. ‘‘Ajit takes an over to hit his straps and that in international cricket is not acceptable. Ashish also needs to be more ruthless in not giving away runs.’’ Continuing with Agarkar, Reid said, ‘‘Ajit was very impressive in Australia. We must get him back to that level. He is getting too round-armed. We are trying to get his arm higher. We have been watching his videos and trying to sort that out.’’ He insisted that for Agarkar to do well he has to pitch the ball up even if he needs extra protection early on to do that. ‘‘We took some statistics of Agarkar and they showed that his first ball is almost always hit for a four. So we are trying to find out how we can get that to be a dot ball instead. Maybe he needs a bouncer or a yorker to begin with.’’ As for the last member of the Indian pace battery, Reid was full of praise. Balaji, he said, ‘is a very good learner and a very disciplined bowler. I changed his bowling run up in Australia — pace, not length — and he responded brilliantly to it even in Pakistan, bowling interesting angles. He came on brilliantly carrying a major load of the team in the absence of the seniors.’’ But then, for Reid, ‘‘Pathan is special’’. And irrespective of whether Zaheer makes a comeback, Nehra and Agarkar manage to pack in that loose delivery, and Balaji continues his upward move, it’s Pathan who the opponents have to watch out for the most.
