‘Dada wanted me to bowl more bouncers’
He represented India in three ICC World Cups — 2003, 2007 and 2011 — and was the leading wicket-taker in all of them. An Arjuna Awardee, Zaheer Khan, in an international cricket career spanning over 14 years, has established himself among the legends in the sport. The cricketer, who turned 41 yesterday, is still regarded as one of the best bowlers to master the yorker deliveries.
Even when it comes to formats, Zaheer has played all three — Test, One Day International (ODI), and T20. Ask him if short format is the way forward for the game, and he says, “Looking at the global cricketing structure, you have 10 test playing nations, and I feel, the shorter formats have benefitted the associate nations, too. Otherwise, the gap is huge and that’s where the short format works nicely. This helps the relatively upcoming teams to compete. That’s the best way of growing the sport, mainly in nations that are developing cricket.”
Zaheer, who’ll be seen playing in the Abu Dhabi T10 League, was one of the first bowlers to introduce the knuckle ball at an international level. But, he is quick to say that a lot has changed over the years for the bowlers. “The reliance on variations and the new dimension to approach these variations, has evolved. Even for batting, the shot making process has evolved. But this has always been the part of the game. The batsman pushes a bowler and the bowler has to match up to that challenge. The process has been in an interesting phase in the last decade and a half,” he says.
So, has the approach in coaching also changed for bowlers? “You always have your natural style and you have to adjust within that. That’s always been my approach. I don’t believe in doing something which would hamper my game or put me out of it due to an injury. If it’s action related, there’s some work to be done, but that’s within your natural space. I also did that — be it shorter run-ups or changing the load up in my delivery. I’m glad a lot of coaches and bowlers are now taking this path.”
Besides his ability to swing old balls, Zaheer was known for his inch-perfect yorker deliveries. However, rumours claimed that Sourav Ganguly, then Indian captain, wasn’t happy with the whole process and deliveries. Clarifying the same, Zaheer shares, “You can’t say he wasn’t happy. In fact, he used to push me so much to better myself. And not only Dada... be it (VVS) Laxman, Sachin (Tendulkar) or even Rahul Dravid, they all encouraged me. That help was always there. What Dada keeps referring to is the number of bouncers I used to deliver in my spells (or in a day), weren’t enough. He used to tell me that I needed to bowl more bouncers and at times, I was reluctant on doing that considering the nature of wickets on Indian tracks.”