Zaheer Khan: 25 facts about India’s best ever left-arm seamer

Born October 7, 1978, Zaheer Khan is India’s answer to the class that other international cricketing powerhouses produce on a consistent basis. The second most successful fast bowler in India’s Test history, Zaheer was the leader of the country’s bowling attack for most part of first decade of the 21st century. He was instrumental in India winning the ICC Cricket 2011 World Cup. On his 38th birthday, Chinmay Jawalekar looks at 25 facts from the life of the left-handed seamer, who can swing the new ball and reverse the old with same precision.

1.    Early life: Zaheer was born in Srirampur, a small town 40 kms from Shirdi, to a middle-class couple. His father was a photographer while mother was a teacher. He did his initial schooling at the Hind Seva Mandal’s New Marathi Primary School and later at the KJ Somaiyya Secondary School. Post schooling, he got admission to the Mechanical Engineering degree course. But on his coach Sudhir Naik’s advice, he gave up engineering and focussed on cricket, even as he was good at academics.

2.    Cricket calling: Zaheer was a prodigious talent. Impressed by his skills, his father took him to Mumbai when he was 17. A sincere and disciplined Zaheer played every tournament that took place at National Cricket Club for the first two seasons. A seven-wicket haul in a final against Shivaji Park Gymkhana shot him to fame in Mumbai’s cricket circles and soon he got into the Under-19 sides of Mumbai and West Zone in 1998-99. It was followed by a stint at the MRF Pace Foundation in Chennai, where Dennis Lillee, the coach, prophesied that he would bowl for India.

3.    First-Class debut: Zaheer made his First-Class debut in the 1999-2000 domestic season for Baroda, as he couldn’t make it to the Mumbai squad. In his debut season, he was the third best fast bowler, and best left-arm seamer, behind Ashish Zaidi and Sadagoppan Mahesh. Playing in eight matches, Zaheer picked up 35 wickets at an average of 29.25, with best figures of 5-43 in an innings.

4.    Baroda’s Ranji triumph: Zaheer made rapid strides playing for Baroda. In the Ranji Trophy final 2000-01 against Railways, Zaheer’s eight wickets, including a second innings fifer, helped Baroda win by a narrow margin of 21 runs. He was adjudged as the Man of the Match for his performance. His international debut, however, had happened by this time. Post 2006, he started representing Mumbai in domestic cricket.

5.    International debut: His domestic heroics soon saw him playing for India. He was picked up to play the ICC Knock-Out Trophy in Nairobi in 2000 and made an immediate impact. He took three wickets on his debut against Kenya and in only his second game — which was the quarter-final against the then world champs Australia — Zaheer dismissed Adam Gilchrist and Captain Steve Waugh and helped India script a famous win. Incidentally, it was also Zaheer’s 22nd birthday. He had announced his arrival in style. His Test debut came later in the year against Bangladesh, where he picked up three wickets in the match.

6.    ICC Cricket World Cup 2003: Zaheer, along with Javagal Srinath and Ashish Nehra, was instrumental in India’s dream run to the final of the ICC Cricket World Cup 2003. However, a nervous Zaheer gave a horrific start to the final, conceding 15 runs in the first over against Australia.  India never recovered and lost with a huge margin. With 18 wickets from 11 matches, he finished the tournament as the fourth highest wicket-taker at an impressive average of 20.77 runs per wicket.

7.    India’s pace spearhead: Post Srinath’s retirement, Zaheer became India’s pace spearhead and led the bowling attack whenever he played. In 2005, the emergence of Shanthakumaran Sreesanth, Munaf Patel and Rudra Pratap Singh, add to it frequent injuries, meant Zaheer was in and out of the side. Things became worse when the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) demoted Zaheer from a B-grade to a C-grade contract at the end of the year.

8.    County stint: The watershed moment in his career came when he signed for Worcestershire as one of their two overseas players in 2006. What followed was a remarkable period of five months with the County side, where he became the first Worcestershire player to take 10 wickets on debut for over 100 years. Later he took the first nine wickets in an innings against Essex, ending with 9–138. If only the wicketkeeper Steven Davies had not dropped a catch offered by last man Darren Gough, Zaheer would have become the first bowler ever to take all ten for the County. He ended the season with 78 wickets.

9.    Return to the squad: An impressive English county stint resulted in Zaheer’s comeback to the national team for the tour of South Africa. Some consistent performances on the tour, followed by a good run in early 2007 in home ODIs against the West Indies and Sri Lanka, including a career best 5/42, confirmed Zaheer’s ticket on the plane to the Caribbean for the ICC Cricket  World Cup 2007.

10.    Trent Bridge: In July 2007, when India toured England, Zaheer was the pick of the bowlers with 18 wickets from the three Test series, which India won 1-0 their first series victory in England since 1986. He was also the man of the series along with England’s James Anderson. His 9 wickets in the Trent Bridge Test help India win the match as well as series.

11.    2008-2012: His appearances for India between the period 2008 to 2012 were limited, especially in the One-Day Internationals (ODIs) as he kept battling the injuries. His only 10-wicket hall in Tests came during this period against Bangladesh in 2010.

12.    ICC Cricket World Cup 2011: 2nd time lucky: Unlike 2003, when Srinath was the leader of the pack, Zaheer was the mainstay of Indian bowling attack during the side’s victorious ICC Cricket 2011 World Cup campaign. He buried the ghosts of that nightmarish final in 2003 and finished the tournament with 21 wickets at 18.76. He was also the leading wicket-taker along with Pakistan’s Shahid Afridi. In three World Cup tournaments that he has played, he’s India’s leading wicket along with Srinath (44 wickets) but Zaheer has achieved this feat in fewer games than Srinath; only 23 matches as compared to Srinath’s 34.

13.    Post ICC Cricket World Cup 2011: Zaheer hasn’t played an ODI for India since August 2012. He did make sporadic appearances in Tests though. He was selected for India’s tour to England in 2011, but had to quit in the first Test itself after an injury. In December 2013, he became only the second Indian pacer to take 300 Test wickets, with the South African all-rounder Jacques Kallis being his 300th victim.

14.    Statistics: Zaheer has taken 610 international wickets so far (311 in Tests, 282 in ODIs and 17 in T20 Internationals (T20Is). He has 652 First-Class wickets to his name, along with 357 in List A and 119 in domestic T20Is.

15.    Indian Premier League (IPL): Zaheer has turned out for three different franchises in the IPL since its inception; Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB), Mumbai Indians (MI) and the Delhi Daredevils (DD). In his last assignment for DD, he also doubled up as their bowling mentor.

16.    Zaheer the batsman: Zaheer was a decent batsman in the early part of his career. In only his 12th ODI, he famously smacked Henry Olonga for four consecutive sixes on the final four balls of the innings. In a Test against Bangladesh in 2004, he scored 75 batting at No. 11, the then record highest Test score by a batsman at that position, which has subsequently been broken by West Indies’ Tino Best and Australia’s Ashton Agar. In the same innings, he was involved in the record tenth-wicket partnership along with Sachin Tendulkar, which produced 133 runs. This record is yet to be broken.

17.    Dada’s protégé: Zaheer first burst onto the scene under the inspirational captain Sourav Ganguly’s tenure. Ganguly, who gave opportunities to a number of youngsters such as Virender Sehwag, Yuvraj Singh, Harbhajan Singh and Mohammad Kaif in his time, also shaped Zaheer’s career.

18.    Graeme Smith’s tormentor: Every bowler has a bunny and Zaheer had former South African skipper Graeme Smith, whom he has dismissed 14 times in international cricket,  the most times he has dismissed any batsman.

19.    Plane-jitters: As a young boy, Zaheer was afraid of travelling by plane. His first experience of boarding a plane was when he travelled to Madhya Pradesh with the Mumbai Ranji probables. He famously told his coach Vidyadhar Paradkar, “Sir aap mere saath aaoge? Mujhe plane se darr lagta hai (Sir, will you accompany me? I am scared of planes).”

20.    Zak-attack: Zaheer is fondly called as Zak by his team-mates. His career-changing time with the English County side Worcestershire earned him the nick-name of “Zippy Zakky”.

21.    Inspiration: Zaheer is a huge Tendulkar fan and takes inspiration from the batting idol. Outside the sport, Tennis great Roger Federer is someone who he derives inspiration from.

22.    Fitness tryst in France: After being out of favour by the Indian selectors, Zaheer along with Yuvraj — who too was down and out and had fitness and form issues to fix just like Zaheer — went to France in 2013 to attend an intense six-week training camp. This was a private affair, and not a one sponsored by the BCCI. The rigorous programme at Brive La Gaillarde saw them virtually cut off from the world, where they reportedly lived the life of a Shaolin monk at a training camp. The duo was the first set of cricketing clients for the coach Tim Exeter, who is a high performance physical trainer well known in Europe’s rugby and soccer fields.

23.    Great adapter: Zaheer has been one cricketer who has always excelled in diverse conditions. He’s always relished playing in challenging situations and has quickly acclimatised to the foreign conditions. A great adapter, Zaheer is equally good with SG, Duke and Kookaburra balls and displays terrific control over them with ease.

24.    Zaheer the businessman: Zaheer owns a restaurant “ZK’s” in Pune, which is being managed by his younger brother Anees. He has also recently set up ProSport Fitness & Services, a special rehab & training center in association with leading cricket physiotherapists Adrian Le Roux and Andrew Leipus.

25.    Wisden Cricketer of the Year: Zaheer was the Wisden Cricketer of the Year in 2008, along with Ian Bell, Ryan Sidebottom, Shivnarine Chanderpaul and Ottis Gibson.

(A self-confessed cricket freak, Chinmay Jawalekar is senior content writer with Criclife. When not writing or following cricket, he loves to read, eat and sleep. He can be followed at @CricfreakTweets)