DAILY HUMAN

Daily Human — An Indian Pace Quartet— 16/8/21

Things that make me cry, exult, laugh or think

The year just keeps on giving. We have never had so many sporting highs in a year. And we still have 4 months to go.

The Lord’s win is just incredible. I cannot do a good job of describing how special it was in so many different ways. Read the professionals tomorrow.

I just want to talk about one thing. The Indian Pace Quartet.

Such a thing finally exists.

4 different types of fast bowlers working together to relentlessly attack the opposition. No weak links to be feasted upon. No Dodda Ganeshs coming in to ease the pressure that Srinath and Prasad built.

There is only one memory of such a rare sighting.

The opening game of the 1991 Benson and Hedges triangular tournament against the West Indies. Defending 126, the quartet of Kapil, Prabhakar, Srinath and Subroto Banerjee bowled superbly to have the Windies on the ropes at 76 for 8. Anderson Cummins and Curtly Ambrose nearly took the Windies home before Sachin took the tenth wicket in the 41st over to tie the game.

And that was it. Banerjee never reached the same heights again and we never got close to a pack of four predators hunting together.

The only quartets in Indian cricket were the spin quartets of the 70’s and the batting quartet of Sachin, Dravid, Laxman and Ganguly.

Until now.

The age of the Indian Pace Quartet begins now.

The Indian (test) cricket fan cries tears of joy.