Laxmi Ratan Shukla

For the past 7 or 8 years Indian ODI team has been in need of a good fast bowler allrounder.A good fast bowler allrounder means that he should be a good batsman and a good fast bowler as well. So the previous point clearly says that its neither Irfan Pathan nor Virat Kholi, allrounders who could satisfy only one of the criteria. Why do we need a pace all rounder? If you have a weakness then rely on your strength. It’s the policy that any Cricket team (not only a cricket team) follows on earth. And it implies to the Indian cricket team too.Every team has its own strength.Every country produces players who are exposed more to their conditions and obviously their strengths will revolve around their conditions.

                 Everybody know well that the Indian sub continent assist spinners more than pacers. Australia and South Africa badly lack spinners. Their bowling revolve around their pacers even today.They used their strength to overcome their weakness.Though both teams did not manage to make it to the semis, without doubt they were competing well until their presence was there in the tournament.Now coming to the point, India has never had a quality pace attack in its history just like how South Africa never had a quality spin attack.We have more than 4 spinners who could really do well at the international level.Just see whether South Africa team management would reject any one of  Harbajan,Ojha,Ashwin,Misra,Chawla and Rahul Sharma if they are offered only one . We don’t have more than 2 quality pacers who can maintain a good economy rate through out the innings.We don’t have more than one pacer who bowls well during death overs .So using 3 pacers will not make sense isn’t it? From a fan point of view, damn sure no Indian fan would be confident with the team’s bowling lineup if the team has 3 pacers and 1 spinner (say Zaheer,Praveen,Umesh and Ashwin).If not 3 pacers ,then 2 pacers and 2 spinners? That too isn’t a great bowling attack.Just cant imagine an innings with just 20 overs of pace isn’t it? It makes your opponent more used to your strength (spin). Having a part time spinner like Jadeja will not help as we all know that he cant always give his 100%.

           So what to do? Analysis clearly reveals that the key here is having 2 full time spinners for a spin dependent nation like India. But a team should have 7 complete batsmen to have a confident batting line up. As already mentioned, 2 pace bowlers are not at all sufficient. Irfan cannot be the 7^th batsman for sure.Probably he can be the 8^th.By now the person reading this article will feel the dearness of a pace allrounder’s presence in the team.It will enable the Indian team management to pick 3 pacers(including him) , 2 spinners and 7 complete batsmen(every one of them better than Irfan Pathan).So who is the pace allrounder? The candidates are Lakshmi Ratan Shukla, Abishek Nayar from List A cricket. And the hero of the article L.Shukla has proved to be a better oneday player when compared to Abishek Nayar.

               The 30 year old Bengali Allrounder has already worn the blue jersey in 1999 and unfortunately he wasn’t able to last for long in the jersey.He was also a part of India test squad during the ACC Asian Test Championship 1998-99 yet failed to make his test debut .He hasn’t impressed too much in the longest format. Even after playing more than 100 first class matches he averages just near 35 with his batting and has taken just 121 wickets.So there is no question of his absence in the Indian test team. But middle order righthanded batsman has been very good in the 50 over List A format. He has 2585 runs in 115 List A matches averaging 33 which is as good as Raina’s ODI batting record and far better than Ravindra Jadeja’s List A record(His ODI batting record is even worse as all knows). And his bowling in List A is pretty decent as he has taken more wickets than the matches he played (117 of 115). This bowling performance is more than enough for a 3^rd pace bowler who is going to bowl not more than 6 overs a match and when the team has 2 specialist spinners isn’t it? His bowling average of 26 is also better than Ravindra Jadeja’s 28. He has been highly impressive at the domestic level at several occasions. Even recently he lead Bengal to victory with a century and a four wicket haul where 3 of his victims were the top 3 (Jaffer, Rahane and Revandkar) batsmen in the Mumbai’s batting order. There is no doubt that he is a complete batsman and his bowling economy rate is a real bowlers economy rate of 4.48. 24th of February 2012 is not long back when he scored a 151 against Jharkhand. Is there any more justification needed for him to be given priority over Ravindra Jadeja and Yusuf Pathan to be selected in the India ODI squad? He is now a highly experienced player too atleast at the domestic level. 

                       Now let us imagine a playing eleven. 1.Sachin/Sehwag 2.Gambir 3.Kholi 4.Rohit 5.Raina 6.Dhoni 7.SHUKLA 8.Irfan 9.Ashwin 10.Ojha 11.Zaheer/vinay. Can you suggest a more balanced team. This team has 7 complete batsmen ,2 semi-batsmen(Ashwin and Irfan), 3 pacers and 2 specialist spinners who can bowl better than Jadeja or Yusuf.

                         Lakshmi Ratan Shukla is now young and experienced who will be fruitful if exposed to more international cricket.We have wasted some 5 or 6 years of his international career. He is 30.Being a fast bowler allrounder not more than 5 more years of service to the nation’s cricket we can expect from him.It’s the right time to select him for him to be fruitful in 2015 world cup.