One cricketer whose performances are bound to come under close scrutiny this season is Irfan Pathan. After a near-dream start to his international career in Australia and then in Pakistan, he had an ordinary season last year - which in no small way contributed to India's average fortunes in the season gone by. The clamour and the hype that surrounded his performances in his first year that he was India's next Kapil Dev has died down. In fact, the end of the last season saw him dropped not just from the playing eleven against Pakistan but altogether from the squad of fourteen. This does beg the question - was it a case of his not being a hundered percent fit or was it a case of someone who needed helpful conditions to succeed at the international level?
About a decade back, India had seen the advent of a similar swing bowling talent who had gone on to make an impression in helpful conditions in Toronto, England and Australia but petered out in not-s0-helpful conditions back home - Debashish Mohanty. Mohanty was unplayable in helpful conditions and took wickets by the bagful. But his lack of genuine pace (120's) proved his undoing. Irfan also has had a great deal of success, but he too suffers from the same problem - his lack of genuine pace. I do hope for India and crickets sake, that Mohanty's story does not get repeated with Pathan.
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