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By Venkat,
Oct 18, 2004
 A
young man, of about 20 was called to Bangalore by John Wright
from the MRF Pace Academy in Chennai, where he was training
under Dennis Lillee. Yes, he was Munaf Patel, India's new pace
bowling sensation. He was specially parachuted in by the Indian
management, because of frequent hype about his ability to bowl
quick and swing the ball late. He teamed up with other pacers
like Sreesanth of Kerala, Saurav Sorkar of Bengal and Amit
Uniyal of Punjab as the regular net bowlers to the members of
the Indian conditioning camp at Bangalore. There is where, he
became a revelation to the Indian team and of course, the Indian
Media.
He, of course made his first class debut for India A against the
Kiwis at Rajkot and looked more than impressive for a person
sans prior match experience. Picking up a player of Nathan
Astle's caliber twice in a match is any
bowler's dream start to his first class career. Then came the
biggest moment of his career thus far. A transfer conducted from
his ex-home team Gujarat to Mumbai, which was by the
recommendation of none other than Sachin Tendulkar himself.
Thus, this young lad from Baruch became now the man for Mumbai.
I can recall of one such switch of sides, that has produced one
of the lethal weapons of international cricket - Adam Gilchrist.
The story goes like this...Gilly found it really difficult to
break it into the New South Wales first XI because of rigorous
competition. So, sanity prevailed and he chose the WACA as his
new home. He went on to play for Western Australia for 2
seasons, before he got a call up for the Aussies and how, his
stature in World Cricket cannot be with a shadow of doubt
questioned by anyone. Similarly, with Munaf, he has made the
right move although it seemed controversial. I feel, his only
chance of advancing to the top is playing with a quality side
like Mumbai, which by itself gives a competitive atmosphere.
I was at Wankhede to witness the tie between Mumbai and Kerala,
and was fortunate to see Munaf bowl the first over after lunch -
the time I walked in. The tall, lanky quickie took some time to
settle in, but it was back to business after the initial
warm-up. I think, he's been quick to advance from a boy to a
man. And the very fact that when someone plays for a team like
Mumbai, he should be mature enough to carry all the glory and
the pride associated with wearing the "crowned-lion" cap. Munaf
showed a lot of patience, tried many different things initially
on the "paata" Wankhede wicket, gave it all and extracted some
jabbers to the Kerala batsman. His abilities were tested when a
right and left handed pair were batting, but he lived up to his
potential...some late swing with a pace of 145 kmph or so,
that's something one wants to see in a pacer. When he was cover
driven by Ajai Kudva for 2 consecutive balls, Munaf altered his
length by bowling some deliveries in the uncomfortable zone, and
after 2 more deliveries, induced an edge, which ended up in
Vinayak Samant's safe gloves.
Traditionally, India is more known for its quality spinners, but
over the past few years, the emphasis has shifted to
pace-bowling. At the moment, there is intense "race-for-pace" in
India with the likes of Balaji, Pathan, Salvi, Nehra and now
Munaf, battling it out among themselves for getting themselves
written in the selector's lists. I feel, his stay in the Mumbai
team would do him more good than harm, simply because of the
excellent training base that Mumbai provides and I don't think
it would take him long to stride his way into the Indian team.
My guess would be that he will wear the blue cap by 2005 and
will be one of the quickest India has ever produced.
We from Cricketfundas.com wish Munaf all the very best for his
future, and hopefully we will see him don the Indian cap by the
earliest.
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