Not long ago, Zaheer Khan was seen as someone who was symptomatic of the ills that plagued Indian cricket: he was accused of being unfit, not having enough hunger and drive, and not capable of rising to the big occasion.
Fast forward to the present, though, and plenty has changed. In the series against New Zealand, Zaheer was the go-to man for MS Dhoni - he bowled 115.3 overs in the three Tests, much more than Ishant Sharma (94.2) and Munaf Patel (84), the two other specialist seamers in the Indian team. His series average of 30.76 wasn't outstanding, but he bowled much better than the numbers suggest, beating the bat regularly and repeatedly asking questions of New Zealand's top order. Of the13 wickets he took in the series, 12 were of top-order batsmen. (Tim Southee, in the first innings of the third Test, was his only lower-order victim.)
Breaking up Zaheer's career into two halves, it's easy to see that he's become far more potent since he came back into the Indian team for the tour of South Africa in December 2006. His average since that comeback is 30.43, which, again, doesn't do justice to how he has bowled, but it's still significantly better than his average before that tour. His strike-rate has improved by 10 deliveries per wicket, and he has taken more five-fors in 23 Tests since than he had in 42 games during the first phase.
Fast forward to the present, though, and plenty has changed. In the series against New Zealand, Zaheer was the go-to man for MS Dhoni - he bowled 115.3 overs in the three Tests, much more than Ishant Sharma (94.2) and Munaf Patel (84), the two other specialist seamers in the Indian team. His series average of 30.76 wasn't outstanding, but he bowled much better than the numbers suggest, beating the bat regularly and repeatedly asking questions of New Zealand's top order. Of the13 wickets he took in the series, 12 were of top-order batsmen. (Tim Southee, in the first innings of the third Test, was his only lower-order victim.)
Breaking up Zaheer's career into two halves, it's easy to see that he's become far more potent since he came back into the Indian team for the tour of South Africa in December 2006. His average since that comeback is 30.43, which, again, doesn't do justice to how he has bowled, but it's still significantly better than his average before that tour. His strike-rate has improved by 10 deliveries per wicket, and he has taken more five-fors in 23 Tests since than he had in 42 games during the first phase.
