The unfilled void: Zaheer Khan's immeasurable importance to Indian cricket

When Zaheer Khan limped off the field at Lords on the first day of the first Test in 2011, there was a feeling that India’s No 1 ranking in Tests went with him.  There were four more matches to go in the series, India had a strong team untouched by the retirement of their batting stalwarts and had won the last Test series in England.  But the result, as Zaheer’s injury foretold, was a 4-0 whitewash.

The defeat was a result of several things, but Zaheer Khan was not the least of it. The last time India had played a Test series in England, he was the Man of the Series with 18 wickets and a haul of 9 for 134 in India’s historic victory at Trent Bridge.

In that famous Trent Bridge win, Zaheer took wickets with both the new and old ball, guided the other pacers, and even set the field.

That match was perhaps the best example of just how valuable Zaheer Khan was to the Indian cricket team.

As ‘Zak’ announced his retirement from international cricket on Thursday, one thinks about all that he represented. When he made his debut in 2000, he was hailed as the next Kapil Dev and India’s answer to Wasim Akram. The new lynchpins of the Indian bowling attack Ishant Sharma, Bhuvneshwar Kumar now credit him with being their mentor and Dhoni once even called him the ‘Sachin Tendulkar of bowling’.

In the end, Zaheer Khan was arguably the best Indian pacer we saw in the last two decades.

His 311 Test and 282 ODI wickets do not do justice to the kind of impact he has had on the team. I would go on a limb and say that if Zaheer Khan was blessed with the fitness of a South African fast bowler or a physique of an Australian one, he might even have been the best in the world. But alas, all he had was the injury-prone body which ultimately proved to be one challenge too many to overcome. If one could apply a Biblical quote to Zaheer’s career, it would have to be “the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak.”

Zaheer made his debut in 2000 at the ICC Knock Out Trophy in Kenya and made his mark as the lanky, curly-haired bowler who disturbed Steve Waugh’s stumps in only his second ODI. The exuberant pacer was a perfect foil to Javagal Srinath. He had a long run-up, leaped high, hit the deck hard, and could unsettle batsmen with pace and swing.

By the 2003 ICC World Cup, he was Sourav Ganguly’s go-to man and  India reached the final on the back of some excellent bowling spells, his 4-wicket haul against New Zealand being most notable. This honeymoon however, lasted till the final, where a first-ball wide and an attempted sledge at Adam Gilchrist set the tone for a massive defeat.

But later that year when India travelled to Australia for the Border-Gavaskar Trophy, Zaheer got a five-for in the first Test at Brisbane. Then came his first major injury and from then on, it was the injuries that characterised his career. He made a comeback but was unable to regain his place in the side with the likes of Irfan Pathan and RP Singh doing well in the team. Eventually he was dropped in 2005.

But Zaheer wasn’t done just yet. He worked on his fitness, reduced his run up, compromised on pace and worked on reducing his weight. In 2006 he went to England for a county stint with Worcestershire and his impressive performance there earned him a national recall  for the tour of South Africa, where his performance on the bouncy Protean tracks was instrumental on India drawing the Test series. To this day, Greame Smith would perhaps like everyone to forget how he handled Zaheer - something he acknowledged in the commentary box during the ongoing series between India and South Africa.

Suddenly, Zaheer’s career was back on an upward trajectory. He was again the leader of India’s pace attack and the team went to win several series. With the shorter run-up, Zaheer started working on his angles more and mastered the art of reverse swing like no Indian bowler has managed since. Zaheer, with the old ball covered by the non-bowling arm, could trick the best batsmen around the world - no matter how settled they were at the crease.

Zaheer was one of those rare, complete bowlers who relied on guile and planning more than just pace.

The highest point in Zaheer Khan’s career, in his own words, was the 2011 World Cup where he was the joint-highest wicket-taker and was instrumental in India’s victory. It also must have finally put to rest the demons of 2003, just like it did for the fans.

But then came the IPL and another injury and another international tour miss, this time to West Indies. And then, of course, that Lords Test injury, which Sanjay Manjrekar termed as ‘India’s worst nightmare come true’.  That injury turned out to be the beginning of the end. He played his last ODI macth in 2012 in Sri Lanka and his last Test was in early 2014 in New Zealand, the same place where he had established himself back in 2002. He ended with a 5-wicket haul that few knew would be his last.

In the end, Zaheer’s career and its abrupt end was best summed up by his mother who said, “Theek hein, bahut accha safar tha hamara “(it is all right, it was a good journey). And it indeed was, from being an engineering dropout from a village in Maharashtra to one of the Wisden Cricketers of the Year in 2008, the fast bowler has had a journey to remember.

We can talk all we want about his injuries and weight, but his value to the team can be still felt in his absence; whenever India fails to break an opening partnership, whenever India needs the old ball to swing in a Test match, whenever India needs one end to be held up or simply when young bowlers need guidance. But if his farewell post is anything to go by, he’s not yet leaving the game that means to much to him.

Till then, farewell.