Published: Oct 17, 2015, 04:55 PM (IST)
Edited: Oct 17, 2015, 06:28 PM (IST)
Zaheer Khan’s final figures may not look extraordinarily impressive. However, Arunabha Sengupta looks at the numbers to find that at his peak he was one of the very best in the world. READ: Nice knowing you, Zaheer Khan
No department of cricket — and few in any other profession — is touched by as cruel a hand of time as fast bowling. It is in this trade, harnessed as it is by the constant threat of injury, that the inverted idiom of Groucho Marx becomes too true to life — ‘Time wounds all heels.’
With the years fast weighing down on his shoulders, and injuries never really ceasing to take their toll on his body, it was quite widely known that the day was not far off when Zaheer Khan would call time on his career. Time’s arrow has now found its mark, and one of the best fast bowling careers of a pace-deprived nation has come to an end.
The final figures, 311 wickets at 32.94 and a strike rate of 60.4, are perhaps less than remarkable. His average is slightly inferior to those of the other sterling speedsters of Indian cricket, with Kapil Dev (434 wickets at 29.64) and Javagal Srinath (236 at 30.49) finishing ahead of him. However, his strike rate remains ahead of both Kapil (63.9) and Srinath (64.0).
Yet, on the global scale the career will go down as a respectable one without being particularly incredible. READ: Zaheer Khan retires from international cricket: Full text of retirement speech
However, if we take a closer look at Zaheer’s Test record, we can perceive a distinct watershed moment towards the end of 2006. After his hamstring had been treated for the twitching nerve and his skills had been honed by turning out for Worcestershire, his performance took off in a rewarding flight.
From the beginning of 2007, till the day he limped off tragically at Lord’s in 2011, he was definitely one of the very best in business across the world
| Zaheer in phases | W | Ave | SR | 5WIs | 10WMs |
| 2000-2006 |
129 |
36.10 |
65.2 |
3 |
0 |
| 2007-July 2011 |
144 |
27.90 |
51.5 |
7 |
1 |
| After 2011 |
38 |
41.34 |
77.5 |
0 |
0 |
The numbers between 2007 and 2011 are really fantastic.
Before 2007, right from his emphatic entry into the international fold at Nairobi, Zaheer had for long been a promising left-handed quick who made heads turn as he appeared on the horizon hurling yorkers at will, yet never seemed able to scale the heights expected of him, often held back by nagging injuries.
From his debut in 2000 till the end of 2006, he took 129 wickets at a rather unremarkable average of 36.10, taking five wickets on only three occasions in 80 innings.
As 2007 dawned, we saw an improved, more durable version of the speedster. He charged in from a shorter run-up, swung the new ball and reversed the old, and developed into the onomatopoeic Zak. There was hardly a batsman in the world he did not trouble during this period. During this spectacular four and a half year period he captured 144 wickets at 27.90, the fifth-highest among all the bowlers in the world, at an average and strike rate second only to Dale Steyn among major wicket-takers.
Best bowlers between 2007 and July 2011
| Bowler | W | Ave | SR | 5WIs | 10WMs |
| Dale Steyn |
206 |
21.24 |
37.9 |
14 |
4 |
| Mohammad Asif |
76 |
25.63 |
52.7 |
5 |
0 |
| Ryan Sidebottom |
79 |
27.43 |
59.3 |
5 |
1 |
| Brett Lee |
85 |
27.85 |
52.5 |
3 |
0 |
| Zaheer Khan |
144 |
27.90 |
51.5 |
7 |
1 |
| Muttiah Muralitharan |
126 |
28.02 |
58.2 |
10 |
3 |
| Graeme Swann |
142 |
28.13 |
58.4 |
10 |
1 |
| Stuart Clark |
52 |
28.78 |
63.7 |
1 |
0 |
| James Anderson |
183 |
28.92 |
56 |
9 |
1 |
| Mohammad Aamer |
51 |
29.09 |
56.2 |
3 |
0 |
| Mitchell Johnson |
181 |
29.71 |
53.5 |
7 |
2 |
| Morne Morkel |
110 |
30.03 |
54.2 |
4 |
0 |
| Fidel Edwards |
78 |
30.76 |
47.8 |
6 |
0 |
It was the same period that saw Sachin Tendulkar enjoy his fantastic second wind, Virender Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir give rousing starts, VVS Laxman perform some esoteric alchemy in crisis situations and MS Dhoni lead from the front with his customary calmness.
All these significantly contributed to India’s exhilarating climb to the top spot in ICC Test rankings. Zaheer played 34 Tests in this period before Lord’s, and India won 16 of them losing just 5, achieving a zenith seldom witnessed in the nation’s cricketing history.
Zaheer also missed 15 Tests even during this period. Indeed, such was the brittleness of his constitution all through his career. However, for this substantial period India did rule the Test world. And Zaheer was one of the chief architects of the supremacy.
India ruled the world between January 2007 and the end of 2010-11
| Team |
Tests |
Wins |
Loss |
Drawn |
W/L |
| India |
49 |
21 |
9 |
19 |
2.33 |
| South Africa |
42 |
23 |
10 |
9 |
2.30 |
| England |
55 |
24 |
12 |
19 |
2.00 |
| Sri Lanka |
34 |
14 |
8 |
12 |
1.75 |
| Australia |
44 |
22 |
14 |
8 |
1.57 |
| Pakistan |
31 |
6 |
15 |
10 |
0.40 |
| New Zealand |
32 |
6 |
16 |
10 |
0.37 |
| West Indies |
37 |
4 |
18 |
15 |
0.22 |
| Bangladesh |
24 |
2 |
20 |
2 |
0.10 |
The chief architects of the 49-Test zenith between Jan 2007 and 2010-11
| Batsmen | M | R | Bat Ave | 100s | Bowlers | Mat | W | Bowl Ave | 5WIs |
| Sachin Tendulkar |
43 |
4102 |
63.10 |
16 |
Zaheer Khan |
34 |
142 |
28.17 |
7 |
| Gautam Gambhir |
25 |
2550 |
57.95 |
8 |
Ishant Sharma |
34 |
112 |
32.22 |
3 |
| Virender Sehwag |
36 |
3583 |
57.79 |
10 |
Harbhajan Singh |
39 |
166 |
34.27 |
6 |
| VVS Laxman |
44 |
3282 |
55.62 |
6 |
Anil Kumble |
20 |
77 |
37.28 |
2 |
| Sourav Ganguly |
23 |
1889 |
47.22 |
4 |
|||||
| MS Dhoni |
42 |
2316 |
42.10 |
3 |
|||||
| Rahul Dravid |
47 |
3216 |
41.76 |
9 |
|||||
By the time Zaheer limped off in the first innings of the Lord’s Test in 2011, a lot of these factors that had contributed to the success had gone awry.
The numbers of Zaheer post 2011 World Cup make for sad reading. At Lord’s he did start zipping the ball around, having the England batsman in all sorts of trouble. When he hobbled off, his figures read 13.3-8-18-2. Alastair Cook had played back with fatal results and Andrew Strauss had been injudicious in trying to pull a ball from outside the off-stump.
But, after that he never quite made it back as the gilt-edged spearhead that he had been. The 38 remaining wickets came in 13 painstaking Tests, at an expensive 41.34 apiece and at the rate of almost 13 overs per scalp.
Yet, during his heydays between 2007 and 2011 he was among the top bracket of Test bowlers, closer to the pinnacle than either Kapil or Srinath had managed during their respective peaks.
In that respect Zaheer will go down as one of the best India has ever produced. READ: Zaheer Khan was India’s ‘Very Own Wasim Akram’
(Arunabha Sengupta is a cricket historian and Chief Cricket Writer at CricketCountry. He writes about the history of cricket, with occasional statistical pieces and reflections on the modern game. He is also the author of four novels, the most recent being Sherlock Holmes and the Birth of The Ashes. He tweets here.)
