Srinath, Zak helped India become pace battery: Ian

New Delhi, May 27: The burning desire to succeed abroad acted as a stimulus for India to consciously create a fearsome pace battery, says former West Indies speedster Ian Bishop, who compared the current unit to intimidating Caribbean bowlers of the past.

Bishop said the trend started with the likes of Zaheer Khan, R. P. Singh, Munaf Patel following in the foot steps of Javagal Srinath and Kapil Dev in the 2000s.

“It is perhaps the best generation of talents of fast bowling India have produced. And it started a while ago,” Bishop said on ‘Cricbuzz in Conversation’.

“We can go back to Zaheer, R. P. Singh, Munaf Patel and that little cluster that came through after Srinath, who followed Kapil Dev. It’s great to see,” he added.

Led by Bumrah, India has one of the most fearsome pacers. Mohammed Shami, Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Ishant Sharma add variety to the attack.

“It seemed to me from the outside that there was a deliberate attempt by India to recognise that ‘batsmen were good, but if have to win overseas, we have to get players from the MRF Pace Foundation and the NCA coming through, try to prepare pitches to encourage these faster bowlers rather than dusty turners’,” the 52-year-old said.

Bishop in a huge compliment, said the current Indian bowling unit reminds him of the West Indian pace battery that included the likes of Andy Roberts, Michael Holding, Joel Garner Malcolm Marshal and Colin Croft.

“And now when you have three fast bowlers, sometimes four and an excellent spinner, it takes my mind back to the West Indies pace quartet before my generation — the Marshalls, the Holdings, the Garners, the Roberts — I’ll stick Colin Croft in there,” he said.