da pinup bet： It wasn’t a common sight in Indian domestic cricket andwatching it gave one a unique thrill
Siddhartha Vaidyanathan in Mohali01-Apr-2005
VRV Singh does his thing© Cricinfo
It wasn’t a common sight in Indian domestic cricket andwatching it gave one a unique thrill. One of the mostrefreshing sights on the first two days of the RanjiTrophy final, between Punjab and Railways at Mohali,was a 20-year-old fast bowler steaming in andtroubling batsman after batsman not with swing or seambut with sheer pace. Vikram Rajvir Singh or simplyVRV, as everyone here calls him, is a fresh burst ofenergy in a country teeming with workhorse mediumpacers.This is VRV’s debut first-class season but batsmenaround the country have already begun the chatter. Notbecause of the 28 wickets in five games, including aten-wicket haul, but because of an extra dimensionthat he possesses compared to the rest – pace. PutParthiv Patel’s face on Zaheer Khan’s body, add acouple of more inches in height, lengthen the run-upby a few yards, run in with a rhythmic action thatgathers momentum with every step – hands moving likeefficient pistons – deliver with an open-chestedaction and let out a mighty groan when the ballwhizzes past the batsman’s shoulder and you have donea perfect imitation of VRV’s routine.Line and length are sometimes optional but he willhe never compromise on speed. Speak to him and he dropswords like “pace”, “speed” and “fast” with an occasionalmention of “swing”. On the first day, with the sunbeating down, with the pitch easing out, with thebatsmen dominating, with the spinners releasing thepressure at the other end, VRV ran in with all hisfury. The hotter it got, the faster he bowled. On thesecond day, he dug some in short and surprised batsmenwho were well set and scoring freely. He caught thesplice of the bat regularly, induced three chances -all of which were fluffed. He cussed away, shook hishead, shouted out loud – and thundered in faster. Hefinished with figures of 1 for 79 in 23 overs andsuccessfully proved how the scoreboard can be aproverbial ass.Batsmen around the country knowbetter. Tamil Nadu’s strong batting line-up flounderedagainst him. And VVS Laxman, who saw him torment therest of the Hyderabad batsmen, was surprised that sucha talented bowler wasn’t picked in the North ZoneDuleep Trophy squad.Of all the Indian first-class bowlers Intikhab Alam, Punjab’s coach,has seen, he reckons VRV is the fastest. BhupinderSingh Sr, Punjab’s former coach, says, “All he wantsto do is bowl fast,” he says, “nothing else matters tohim.” Sukhvinder Bawa, his coach since he was six,talks about the days when VRV came back from a gameand felt disappointed because he hadn’t injured enoughbatsmen. “When you can bowl with such pace, why spoilthe boy with over-coaching?” Sukhvinder, who alsocoached Yuvraj Singh, asks. “Control can be developedover time but at this age he has to be allowed to bowlas fast as he can.”Now begins the tough part. Munaf Patel appeared twoyears back and made an instant impression by bowlingquick before disappearing into the injury maze.Sandeep Patil, his India A coach, felt that theproblem was as much mental as physical. VRV has toguard against those two evils – injury and mentalmeandering. He is also fortunate to have an excellentsupport system backing him: Alam’s experience withseveral faster bowlers with madder streaks, andPunjab’s brilliant academies to revert to the basicsin case he goes through a lean phase.He isn’t the finished article and will have to firstfind a place in the North Zone squad. Hewill need to have another consistent season and crankup this pace. He will need to stay fit and regularlybowl under searing conditions, on thankless pitches,against high-quality batsmen. Swing and seam need tocome naturally. If he manages all – and the start ishighly promising – the term Indian fast bowler might nomore be an oxymoron.Siddhartha Vaidyanathan is on the staff ofCricinfo.