A young man, of about 20 was called to Bangalore by John Wright from the MRF Pace Academy in Chennai, where he was training under Dennis Lillee. Yes, he was Munaf Patel, India’s new pace bowling sensation. He was specially parachuted in by the Indian management, because of frequent hype about his ability to bowl quick and swing the ball late. He teamed up with other pacers like Sreesanth of Kerala, Saurav Sorkar of Bengal and Amit Uniyal of Punjab as the regular net bowlers to the members of the Indian conditioning camp at Bangalore. There is where, he became a revelation to the Indian team and of course, the Indian Media.
He, of course made his first class debut for India A against the Kiwis at Rajkot and looked more than impressive for a person sans prior match experience. Picking up a player of Nathan Astle’s caliber twice in a match is any bowler’s dream start to his first class career. Then came the biggest moment of his career thus far. A transfer conducted from his ex-home team Gujarat to Mumbai, which was by the recommendation of none other than Sachin Tendulkar himself. Thus, this young lad from Baruch became now the man for Mumbai. I can recall of one such switch of sides, that has produced one of the lethal weapons of international cricket – Adam Gilchrist. The story goes like this…Gilly found it really difficult to break it into the New South Wales first XI because of rigorous competition. So, sanity prevailed and he chose the WACA as his new home. He went on to play for Western Australia for 2 seasons, before he got a call up for the Aussies and how, his stature in World Cricket cannot be with a shadow of doubt questioned by anyone. Similarly, with Munaf, he has made the right move although it seemed controversial. I feel, his only chance of advancing to the top is playing with a quality side like Mumbai, which by itself gives a competitive atmosphere.
I was at Wankhede to witness the tie between Mumbai and Kerala, and was fortunate to see Munaf bowl the first over after lunch – the time I walked in. The tall, lanky quickie took some time to settle in, but it was back to business after the initial warm-up. I think, he’s been quick to advance from a boy to a man. And the very fact that when someone plays for a team like Mumbai, he should be mature enough to carry all the glory and the pride associated with wearing the “crowned-lion” cap. Munaf showed a lot of patience, tried many different things initially on the “paata” Wankhede wicket, gave it all and extracted some jabbers to the Kerala batsman. His abilities were tested when a right and left handed pair were batting, but he lived up to his potential…some late swing with a pace of 145 kmph or so, that’s something one wants to see in a pacer. When he was cover driven by Ajai Kudva for 2 consecutive balls, Munaf altered his length by bowling some deliveries in the uncomfortable zone, and after 2 more deliveries, induced an edge, which ended up in Vinayak Samant’s safe gloves.
Traditionally, India is more known for its quality spinners, but over the past few years, the emphasis has shifted to pace-bowling. At the moment, there is intense “race-for-pace” in India with the likes of Balaji, Pathan, Salvi, Nehra and now Munaf, battling it out among themselves for getting themselves written in the selector’s lists. I feel, his stay in the Mumbai team would do him more good than harm, simply because of the excellent training base that Mumbai provides and I don’t think it would take him long to stride his way into the Indian team. My guess would be that he will wear the blue cap by 2005 and will be one of the quickest India has ever produced.
We from Cricketfundas.com wish Munaf all the very best for his future, and hopefully we will see him don the Indian cap by the earliest.