Paging Praveen Kumar

PK is a thinking medium-pacer; that in itself is a crime. To his credit, he is a rough boy, the kind that ZZ TOP immortalise in their songs.

Two back to back man-of-the-matches in Australia weren’t enough – the Indians wanted him to win the 2007 World Cup, didn’t matter if he played in it or not.

PK swings the new ball, bowls the length, just doesn’t have the right length of hair. He also has the presence of mind to alter his length – he has in his repertoire, the bouncer. When bowled, it targets the eyeballs, not the balls. He can also bowl yorkers at the death.

In the 2 ODIs in Lanka, RP Singh was selected ahead of PK – RP has 63 wickets in 55 games @33, economy 5.38. PK has 30 wickets in 24 games @31, economy 4.97.

Both are in their early 20s, both from U.P., both it appears, are on MSD’s radar. Both can slog, just PK opened the batting in the recent Corporate Trophy ahead of Gambhir – he has seven first class 50s, RP has none.

Pick PK for the finals. He may not have the pace, but then neither did Mathews.


Earlier at Bored: From Pathan to Praveen, the Indian allrounder