Until the arrival of Ashish Nehra on the scene, India did not have a great history of producing left-arm pacemen. Karsan Ghavri was probably the last of the lot who played with some distinction for India. But the latter was a versatile cricketer and ended up taking quite a few of his wickets bowling spin. Throughout the 90’s, India played with Srinath and Prasad as their main strike bowlers. However, things changed drastically towards the turn of the millennium. Nehra’s arrival was soon followed by Zaheer Khan and later on Irfan Pathan, both of whom have spearheaded the Indian attack on a number of occasions. Rudra Pratap Singh, a 20-year old wiry left-armer from UP is the latest to emerge from the crop. And like Zaheer and Pathan, he too has had a very good start to his international career. Only a couple of Tests and a handful of one-day internationals old, Singh has already made a big impression.
The youngest member of India’s Test squad that toured Pakistan, R P Singh has been spoken of highly by a lot of the seniors including Ganguly, Dravid and Sehwag apart from coach Chappell. And they have every reason to believe that Singh can be a great asset to the team in the times to come. In fact, he’s already proving to be a watch-winner. A man-of-the-match winning bowling performance at Rajkot against Sri Lanka (4-35) on good batting strip was a good indicator of what this lad is capable of. In an era where swing bowling has taken the backseat what with batsmen friendly pitches (Lahore & Faisalabad) being prepared all over, the emergence of Singh and Pathan augurs well for the future of Indian cricket. Having said that, the latter has struggled in conditions when the ball refuses to move around. And hence the danger that R P too could tread a similar path is quite an imminent possibility.
But R P’s major strength that has come to the fore during his short stint on the international scene has been his consistency in line and length. He relies to a big extent on doing the basics right and letting the batsmen take all the risks. Definitely the right approach but his resolve will be tested when the batsmen start attacking him. Speed isn’t his forte and hence he has to rely on his consistency and variety in bowling. So far, things seem to be going the right way but the extent of his success will be defined by how quickly he adapts to the different challenges thrown at him by the batsmen and the varied nature of surfaces all over the world.
How it all began
R P Singh, like many of the recent entrants to international cricket, came into prominence after a stirring performance during his U-19 World Cup campaign. In fact, he was one of the main strike bowlers for the side in the tournament held in Dhaka in the February of 2004. Earlier, he also partnered Irfan Pathan in the preceding U-19 Asia Cup tournament. Pathan eventually went on to become the biggest success story of international cricket in the 2004 season.
While the seeds for RP’s success were laid during the U-19 World Cup tournament in which he picked up 8 wickets at a measly average of 25, Singh continued in good vein in the domestic season too. He was instrumental in helping UP win the league phase of the Ranji one-day tournament with 34 wickets in his kitty. Playing in only his fifth domestic game, Rudra Pratap took 5 for 58 and 5 for 33 against Assam at Kanpur. His swinging capabilities were very much on show during this period. That apart, this lad from Rae Bareilly, R P even had his chance to hone his skills at the MRF Pace Academy in Chennai and a six-week stint at Australia's renowned Centre of Excellence at Brisbane, as part of the annual Border-Gavaskar scholarship.
But it was his performances in Ranji cricket that were just too impressive to be ignored by the selectors for long and he finally got the nod for the one-day series in Zimbabwe last year. Harare was the venue for Singh’s first brush with international cricket. And it proved to be a rather fruitful one. Given the new ball, Rudra Pratap Singh took two wickets in his second over itself. But India already had a fixed bowling line-up and so he did not feature prominently in the series. But in the one chance he got, he gave enough indications that here is yet another left-armer ready to make a mark.
He got another well-deserved break in the series against Sri Lanka, in which the Indians trounced the Sri Lankans 6-1. The Rajkot performance mentioned earlier in the write-up came about in this very series.
A part of the UP-rising
R P Singh comes from a state not renowned for its cricketing prowess. But Singh along with the likes of Kaif and Raina have had a huge hand in the emergence of UP as a strong force in domestic cricket. (Piyush Chawla is another who seems destined to make it to the big league sooner rather than later.) And so it is no surprise that all three were part of India’s one-day squad in Pakistan. The last two mentioned were part of UP’s historic triumph in the Ranji trophy final this year as R P Singh impressed one and all with his exceptional performance on a bowlers’ graveyard in Faisalabad. Don’t forget it was his Test debut and on a pitch where every bowler was tearing his hear out, Singh’s figures of 4-89 were as good as it could get. A Man-of-the-Match award was a just reward. The moment was all the more special as Singh took his first stride in Test cricket on the same ground where India’s all time great fast bowler, Kapil Dev Nikhunj also launched his career.
The one-day series that followed was even more fruitful for the talented left-armer. He picked up three scalps in the Lahore ODI while considering a reasonably acceptable 51 runs. There was further improvement in the figures at Multan with yet another match-winning performance of 4-40.
The emergence of Rudra Pratap Singh will put the selectors in a big dilemma. India already have two potent left-arm pacemen in Pathan and Zaheer Khan, both with greater experience to boot. But RP’s showing at the international level during his short career so far is a bit too impressive to be ignored. What he also possesses is swing the ball both ways along with greater control owing to a nice, steady action. While Pathan too is capable of making the ball talk, his consistency in line and length has been found wanting especially when the ball doesn’t move around. This is something that might swing things in Singh’s favour in batsmen friendly conditions.
A final word of praise
As mentioned earlier, Singh comes from a state not known for its cricketing prowess at least till Kaif came onto the scene and so R P deserves all the accolades he’s getting. After all, the journey from Rai Bareilly- where you shouldn’t be hoping for any coaching facilities- to Harare must not have been a very easy one for the lad. He, in fact, had to shift to Lucknow to get access to proper training facilities.
A glance at RP and one wouldn’t get an impression of an immensely talented cricketer waiting to rock the cricket world. Being only a medium pacer, he is definitely not going to create any ripples on the international circuit. But this unassuming lad from the land of PMs has definitely done enough for him to be earmarked as a definite future prospect.
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