There was a time I when Bishan Singh Bedi included 4 spinners in the Indian team to take on the opposition and in the end, Bedi must call wicket keeper Budhi Kunderan to open the bowling for Indian as there were no seamers to do so. A similar situation in South Africa where Virat Kohli chose to go with 5 fast bowlers, all capable of bowling 140 km ph with Umesh Yadav, another sturdy fast bowler warming the bench as there was no place for him in the team. As a cricketing nation, we have come a long way from relying upon spinners to win us matches to playing all fast bowlers to exploit the conditions. We have waited for long to see such transformation in Indian cricket and the road ahead seems to be a comfortable one with the new generation of quick bowlers coming up. Apart from the likes of Umesh Yadav, Jaspreet Bumrah, Mohd. Shami, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Ishant Sharma and Hardik Pandya that are currently playing for the nation, we have a new line of full pace bowlers in Shivam Mavi, Kamlesh Nagarkoti, Ishan Porel, Basil Thampi, Aswin Christ, Arshdeep Singh and Umar Nazir Mir coming up to take the country forward.
Let’s look at some of these names and what their capabilities are:
Shivam Mavi
The U-19 world cup star from UP was seen clocking the speed of more than 145 km ph along with accurate line and length. He will play alongside Mitchell Starc in IPL 2018 for KKR and would be a lethal force in their armor. He did suffer a knee injury four years back but was back with full force to play with big guys as there were no takers from him in his age category.
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Kamlesh Nagarkoti
Another U-19 star that will don the KKR jersey in this IPL, is a son of army subedar and bowls consistently above 140 km ph. He threatened many in the U-19 world cup and is ready to do it on the bigger stage. He bowled his fastest bowl at 149 km ph against Australia and made headlines immediately in the newspapers. He added the deadly reverse swing to his armor on the recommendation of his junior coach Rahul Dravid and this proved the changing point in his career at the junior level.
Ishan Porel
The tall 19-year-old pacer is a traditional fast bowler with speeds ranging in the upwards of 140 km ph. He is the product of a special program launched by Cricket Association of Bengal at the behest of Sourav Ganguly and has trained under the guidance of Waqar Younis. He also shined in the U-19 world cup for India and is raring to go at the senior level in the domestic circuit. Though he missed out on a contract from an IPL franchise, but he could find solace in the likes of his counterparts playing for his city franchise.
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Basil Thampi
The senior counterpart amongst the young hopefuls, Basil Thampi has already earned an India call for T20 and rest will soon fall into place. He shined in the last year’s IPL for the defunct franchise Gujarat Lions and this year he will be playing for Hyderabad alongside Bhuvneshwar Kumar. He can for sure bowl above 140 km ph for long spells and has earned the praise of pace greats like Glenn McGrath at the MRF Pace Foundation.
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Aswin Christ
He is another veteran (23-year-old) from Tamil Nadu and has taken inspiration from Laxmipati Balaji to take his stateside to the semi-finals of the Ranji Trophy last year. He was unable to secure a contract in IPL, but he is for sure a contender for the Indian team to bowl with the red new ball for long spells.
Arshdeep Singh
The 18-year-old left arm fast who hails from Madhya Pradesh but plays for Punjab. He is a promising talent who has convinced the likes of Rahul Dravid and Venkatesh Prasad that he could be the replacement of Zaheer Khan, RP Singh, and Irfan Pathan, that India was looking for ages now. He was an integral part of the Indian U-19 team in New Zealand and would hope that he can soon make it to the senior team.
Umar Nazir
The 6’4” tall fast bowler, instantly reminds of Ishant Sharma. However, along with the natural bounce that he generates because of his height, he can also bowl long spells at the speed greater than 140 km ph. The 24-year-old hails from Kashmir and his skills have not gone unnoticed.
Apart from the ones listed above we also have a list of second-line fast bowlers gearing up for their chance. Some of the names includes Nathu Singh (RH Fast Medium)from Rajasthan,
Avesh Khan (RH Fast Medium) from Madhya Pradesh, Ankit Rajpoot ((RH Fast Medium) from Uttar Pradesh, Aniket Choudhary (LF Fast Medium) from Rajasthan, Sandip Warrier (RH Fast Medium) from Kerala, Veer Pratap Singh (RH Fast Medium) from Bengal and K. Vignesh (RH Fast Medium) from Tamil Nadu.