Just a couple of days back, I came across this name Atul Sharma being associated with the tag of ‘The World’s fastest bowler’. To be honest, I have never heard this name in my life although I have been covering international and domestic cricket on the internet since the last five years.
Right, I was pleasantly surprised to know about this Indian lad who is being hyped to be the world’s fastest bowler! The talk is that Atul Sharma can effortlessly crack up speeds of more than 100 mph! But guys and gals, here is a 23-year-old bowler who has not bowled a single ball in competitive cricket and has been training like hell since 7 years! Sounds strange right?
Well there is a video of Atul Sharma released on the net and the first look of him for some reason reminded me of The Great Khali (better known than Dalip Singh Rana, who is a popular Indian wrestler in the WWE). The video of Atul Sharma was mind boggling, the commitment he was showing in his drills and the kind of fitness and strength displayed were simply amazing. The disappointment is that we don’t get to see him bowl at all in that video, so we are kept in suspense about his bowling action. Well just kidding, have a little bit of patience as you will get to see the real action right at the end of the video!
These days I have not been a 100% in cricket and may be that’s the reason I missed to see the name Atul Sharma in the Rajasthan Royals Squad. When TV commentators were talking that Shane Warne and the Rajasthan Royals have unearthed a really special fast bowler, I was of the impression that it was about Kamran Khan! May be they were talking of Atul Sharma instead. We were unlucky not to see him in action this IPL because the lad had sustained a shoulder injury during one of the Rajasthan Royals warm up matches ahead of the tournament.
As you people can see in this video, Atul Sharma is a powerful lad with Olympic level fitness. Apparently he has worked with Javelin Coaches in USA along with the world Javelin Champion by the name Jeff Gorski. Cricket wise, Atul Sharma has been learning the tricks of the trade from fast bowling English Coach – Ian Pont (of the Mavericks Cricket Coaching Institute based in Halstead, Essex).
I just happened to see his bowling action while writing this post, well to begin with he has got this muscular body and he sprints like a top athlete, has a dream jump while approaching the bowling crease; and in the end it looks like a conscious effort to sling the ball round arm a touch like Shaun Tait who is also the frontrunner of being the world’s fastest bowler. But this Atul Sharma action does give the impression that he is throwing a javelin rather than bowling a cricket ball. Don’t worry though as the action does look clean, I mean no problem of bending the elbow kind. Anyway let’s hope that this guy Atul Sharma lives upto all the hype that he has generated which will only be brilliant for Indian Cricket and also Cricket in general which hasn’t seen that many tear away quicks in the last few years.