Aussie opener Matthew Hayden may be shivering at the prospect of facing Zaheer Khan after falling to him in all three Test innings of the ongoing series.
Zaheer Khan has now dismissed the Australian opener seven times
MOHALI: Aussie opener Matthew Hayden may be shivering at the prospect of facing Zaheer Khan after falling to him in all three Test innings of the ongoing series, but he can take heart from the fact that the left-arm seam bowler has made a habit of dismissing left-handers during his eight-year long career.
Zaheer, who had Hayden caught behind and lbw at Bangalore before castling him in the second Test here, has now dismissed the prodigious batsman seven times in Test cricket. He is tied at top place in the list of bowlers to have dismissed Hayden most times, along with Harbhajan Singh and Makhaya Ntini. West Indian Chris Gayle, another left-hander, has been dismissed five times by Zaheer and the likes of South African skipper Graeme Smith, Zimbabwe hero Andy Flower and even superstar Brian Lara have been easy fodder for him in the past. But what is it that makes Zaheer such a good bowler when it comes to left-handers?
He relishes bowling that ideal line to left-handers. Not one to swing the ball all that much, he has time and again moved it very effectively while bowling to southpaws, his subtle movement getting him great success.
But this is not an art that he developed in the international arena. Rather, it is something that Zaheer has been blessed with. Right from his international debut against Kenya in the ICC Champions Trophy, he has relished bowling to left-handers. In that match, he had sent back Mohammad Sheikh and Hitesh Modi, both of the same ilk, in the space of three deliveries.
It is interesting to note that 42 per cent of Zaheer’s victims have been left-handers. Certainly not a depressing piece of statistics at all, considering the number of left-handed openers that we have in international cricket nowadays!
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