Manee
Cricketer Of The Year
Definitely. People were too quick to dismiss Pathan after his poor start to the IPL. Few realise he is just returning from a year long back injury layoff and then a minor injury sustained a month earlier. Now that he is fit, he is looking pretty good. Look at the swing and the promise is there. Swing bowlers such as him (when he swings it), Praveen, Hoggard, Anderson, to name a few, tend to struggle in T20 but put him in an OD and FC fixture and I reckon he'll do okay. He did well in his last full FC season and I'm sure he'll do well in this one if he stays fit. Swing is more crucial than pace for getting wickets in FC cricket and if he can perform with ball and bat then he will be really pushing for a Test spot.
As for Ishant, not only has he found accuracy, but he has found pace. He is bowling enough balls over 140kph to remind us of how he bowled when initially in international cricket.
Umesh was good last year. He has been poor this year, I think that playing for a poor team has not helped, nor has being pushed in and out of the team. He definitely possesses the ability to bowl at 145kph. However, he is still very raw. Same with Aaron. I was hoping they'd get a full season of playing this IPL but Delhi opted to try out Agarkar and Salvi in a few matches. Tbf to Agarkar and Salvi, they've both done well when given the chance.
Yeh, my fear is that his speed is wasted if he cannot move the ball. He may remain a mere domestic bully if he does not gain the ability to get swing. I'd put Ashok Dinda, for example, as currently a more tenable option than him or Yadav for ODI cricket (none of the three are ready but Dinda is ahead), simply because Dinda swings the ball. You won't get anywhere against top quality batsmen bowling 145kph and straight. It is good that with his pace and skid, he can do batsmen for pace but that can only get you so far and on certain pitches.
silly stats those
