The new left - India's way to a brighter tomorrow

There has always been a fascinating mystique about subcontinental cricket, and India's in particular. There have been those marvellous spinners, personified by Bishen Bedi in his colourful turbans and Bhagwat Chandrasekhar 30 years ago, and the wristy strokemakers such as Mohammad Azharuddin.

No less magical were the brilliant close fielders like Eknath Solkar and Ajit Wadekar, who both caught the ball as if performing a startling act on the high wire. All of these rich characters were inspired by the great Ranjitsinjhi, the patron saint of Indian cricket, who, of course, played for England 100 years ago.

Fast bowling is the one act which has been some way down the list of great Indian achievements. But they have now come to England with the unusual idiosyncrasy of a pair of left-arm opening bowlers, Zaheer Khan and Ashish Nehra.

The history of the game is littered with left-arm fast bowlers who offer this different angle of attack, and to be honest, it is this which has won many of them selection ahead of perhaps more able right-handers. The sequence goes from the brilliance of Alan Davidson, who bowled for Australia in the Sixties and Seventies, and Gary Sobers, that embodiment of all the talents, who performed at much the same time for West Indies, down to the rather more humble Karsan Ghavri and Liaqat Ali of India and Pakistan respectively.

India's current two make a most interesting study. Zaheer Khan is, at the moment, the better bowler. He has the weapon which Davidson developed to almost its ultimate, the ball which swings back into the right-hander. This means that the batsman can never safely leave the ball which at first sight seems to be slanting away to the slips, for it might suddenly nip back and find him lbw.

Zaheer gave Robert Key some awkward moments in his first Test innings here yesterday as he made him play at the ball which the angle of delivery meant was slanting away from the bat. Then he would bring one back into him, which would catch Key off balance, and indeed he might easily have had his wicket with this tactic. Zaheer also has a strong pair of shoulders from which he gets an unexpected turn of pace, and this enables him to hurry the batsman.

If only his partner, Ashish Nehra, could also learn to bowl the one that dips back into the right-hander it would make them a much more formidable combination. Nonetheless, Nehra is also a lively performer. He too, gets some unexpected pace from his final stride and it was this which eventually brought him Key's wicket. Key went to pull a ball which was not quite short enough and hurried on to him quicker than he expected.

At 23 apiece, they are still very inexperienced, something which was exposed by Michael Vaughan and Mark Butcher, but they are a pair of bowlers with real ability. They would both profit from a spell under a watchful and authoritative eye such as Rodney Marsh's. Then they would learn to make the most of their undoubted natural talents.