The India seamer was cleared for the World Cup in the Caribbean starting next month after proving his fitness and bowling form in a domestic one-day game.
AHMEDABAD: State of Irfan Pathan’s fitness moved out of the realm of speculation (that he may not be fully fit) that existed prior to him bowling 8.4 overs for West Zone against Central Zone on Sunday. By late evening, Pathan’s status report moved right into the spectrum of assumption (that he will find peak form and fitness before the World Cup begins). None of the conditions is ideal either for Pathan or for India in the lead-up to the World Cup.
After going through the circumstantial evidence provided by Pathan in three spells, chief selector Dilip Vengsarkar was convinced that the left-arm medium pacer had to clock more miles under his belt in terms of overs. In the past few days, Vengsarkar called for Pathan to prove his ‘bowling fitness’ in this game and also stated that his selection to the World Cup squad could come up for review.
At Motera, it was clear that Vengsarkar was not elated with Pathan’s performance. “He (Pathan) has to bowl much more. He has been unfit for a month and has not played enough cricket. Bowling 8.4 overs is not enough,” Vengsarkar said. “Pathan will have to bowl a lot in the nets and also during the practice games to be played once the team reaches West Indies,” he said. “There will be no alteration to the squad. Pathan is going to the World Cup.”
Board of Control for Cricket in India secretary Niranjan Shah confirmed that physio John Gloster had declared Pathan ‘medically fit’ after the Visakhapatnam game against Sri Lanka. “He will go to the World Cup. But we want him to bowl more and more overs,” Shah said. Incidentally, Pathan had bowled seven overs in the run-up to the 4th ODI against Sri Lanka and was ready to play, but was not included in the final XI.
Pathan’s opening spell of 5-0-30-0 produced nothing fiery but he got the ball to leave left-hander Faiz Fazal. In his third over, the fifth of the innings Pathan got Fazal to drive in the air but skipper Amol Muzumdar didn’t catch at silly mid-off. During the rest of the spell, Uttar Pradesh all-rounder Praveen Kumar and Vidarbha opener Fazal didn’t have much trouble dealing with Pathan.
Pathan was then brought on in the 38th over, for a 12-ball spell during which he looked rather listless. He dropped the ball short, sprayed it wide and also increasingly bowled around the 105 to 115 km mark. It was clear that Pathan wasn’t going all out just yet.
However, left-arm medium pacer RP Singh and Abbas Ali could manage only eight runs off the two overs Pathan bowled. Shortly, Muzumdar, brought on Pathan for a final fling in the 48th over. He dismissed Ali and RP Singh, both using the long handle in quest of quick runs, and ended up with two wickets for 48 runs. Central Zone were bowled out for 234. But it was there for all to see that Pathan didn’t bowl his heart out.
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