Venkatesh Prasad isn’t given to hyperbole. Therefore, when the former Indian paceman terms the current quick bowling lot as the best swing bowling unit in the business, the world can’t but sit up and take notice.

The art of swing bowling is rapidly disappearing, much like leg-spin was until the arrival of Shane Warne and the constant improvement of Anil Kumble gave it a fresh lease of life. Rudra Pratap Singh and Irfan Pathan aren’t quite there yet in terms of inspiring a new generation of bowlers to embrace swing bowling, but if they continue to progress along the right lines, no one will be happier than their bowling coach.

Throw in the exciting Ishant Sharma, gawky and awkward but with the heart of a lion and a spirit to match, and it is not hard to understand why Prasad is so excited. Then, cast your mind back to the fact that India are without pace spearhead Zaheer Khan and the exciting, excitable Shanthakumaran Sreesanth as well as the talented but temperamental Munaf Patel, and suddenly you find that India’s fast bowling stock appears meatier than do the spin reserves.

Inexperienced
With a combined Test experience of 38 matches going into Perth, India comprehensively outbowled an Australian attack in which Brett Lee alone had played 63 games. The trio of Rudra Pratap, Pathan and Ishant made up for not being as outright quick as their Aussie counterparts with their mastery over swing, increasingly a novelty because there aren’t too many practitioners of that craft and, therefore, there aren’t too many batsmen accomplished at playing the moving ball.

Apart from the batsman himself, the man in the best position to see the ball tail in or shape away is Mahendra Singh Dhoni, the Indian wicket-keeper. “We are swinging the ball,” Dhoni observed, stating the obvious.
“The Australians are used to playing fast bowlers, so they play it well. The only area you can trouble them is with swing. Our bowlers have encouraged the batsmen to drive and got breakthroughs. When we get early breakthroughs, we are a very different side.”

That the Indians most certainly are. The early breakthroughs have also arrived because Australia’s openers in all innings thus far have been left-handers, and both Rudra Pratap and Pathan get the ball to swing away from the left-hander very late, and at fairly decent pace.

To see the Indians consistently tip the speed gun at 140-kmph was heart-warming, to say the least. In the past, India have struggled to piece together two pacers capable of harrying the opposition. For three young men to run in hard all day long, despite severely sapping conditions, was a tribute to their fitness, as well as a confidence in their skills that have stood them in good stead so far.

Rudra Pratap’s progress has been the most remarkable, though no praise can be too high for the manner in which Pathan has fought his way back from 18 months in Test wilderness, or indeed the way in which the 19-year-old Ishant, with limited experience at even the first-class level, has reacted to the challenges of international cricket.

Promising category
This time last year, Rudra Pratap was still in the 'promising' category, capable of swinging the ball and procuring that something extra from even the deadest track, but the consistency needed to move up to the next level was missing.

Through sheer hard work, the 23-year-old has come to establish himself as a vital component in both the Test and limited-overs squads, effortlessly stepping up to the plate after Zaheer Khan was forced to return home with a heel injury and slipping into the role of the pace spearhead with consummate ease in Perth.

“His progress has been fantastic,” Prasad gushed. “He has taken on the responsibility of leading the attack, and he has done it extremely well. We saw that in Sydney as well as in Perth. He is going from strength to strength, and he is adding more to his bowling almost every day.”

The bowling coach has pointed to the excellent seam and wrist position at the point of delivery as the key factors behind the Indians consistently swinging the ball. There is no better exponent of that than Sreesanth, whose propensity to get distracted by things not cricket has threatened more than once to undermine his extraordinary talent.

In South Africa last year, he was outstanding with his release throughout the three-Test series, prompting then coach Greg Chappell to proclaim that he hadn’t seen a bowler bowl with the seam that upright and straight on such a consistent basis.

Sreesanth has since slipped a fair bit, not exactly making the strides expected of him and his cause not helped by a succession of injuries; the Kerala paceman, now awake to the realisation that he can’t afford to take his place for granted, will do well to take a leaf out of the Rudra Pratap book of learning.

Pathan’s has been a stirring tale of grit and determination. From towards the middle of 2006, he seemed to have lost total bowling confidence; at 22, he had seen the good and the bad times in international cricket. His career was at the crossroads, and he had to make a call. He did — he chose to fight. And fight his way back. Now, after one year of constant hard work and a desire to return to the world stage that he had, briefly, graced with such success, he can allow himself a pat on the back.

A cult figure!
His flowing hair, animated appeals and his magnificent spell to Ricky Ponting on the fourth morning at the WACA have combined to make Ishant something of a cult figure in Australia.

“He is a bright prospect, hit the right length at the WACA and is maturing very nicely,” observed Bruce Reid, the former Australian left-arm paceman who briefly worked as the Indian bowling coach during the Australian tour in 2003-04.

“The only area he needs to improve in is the rhythm in his run-up. It is a bit stuttering sometimes. I am sure he will pretty soon get it right. He is a good all-round package. He has good rhythm, good pace and bowls on one side of the wicket,” said Reid.

Reid had a word of advice for Ishant, which could so easily apply to the rest of the Indian pace attack, both here in Australia and the pack back home itching to get into the national team. “He just needs to keep his head and not to get too far ahead of himself. If he maintains that, he will be fine.”

Exciting times ahead for Indian cricket, then. And for once, it is not the batsmen hogging all the limelight!