Mumbai: Injuries hampered his career all through but Indian pacer Zaheer Khan, who announced his retirement on Thursday, said he always took the setbacks in his stride and is proud of the fact that he made successful comebacks time and again.
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The left-arm paceman, 37, will continue to play domestic Twenty20. He has been the leading bowler of India in the last decade and has been a superb exponent of reverse swing.
Once termed as the “Tendulkar of Indian bowling” by MS Dhoni, Khan now wants to give back to the sport. Once he mastered that art, he became a top bowler in the world.
The second phase was of a man, who knew exactly what he could do with red cherry. Need we say more? South African Graeme Smith especially found it hard to tackle Zaheer.
Zaheer was one of Wisden’s Five Cricketers of the year in the 2008 edition of the Wisden Almanack.
“One of the coolest pace bowlers I know”.
Left-arm seamers are a rarity and here was someone clocking regularly in the region of 140 kmph to 145 kmph. Zaheer had an injury while playing against England at lords and went through his hamstring surgery, after that thing were not all that same for him and he could not perform to his best potential.
Sure enough, Zaheer was picked (as was Yuvraj Singh). Since then, India have won just one and lost 11 out of 17 Tests outside the subcontinent. But he had reached a point where his own body was questioning him.
“I have told the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) officials during discussions with them in Dubai that they must confirm or reject the tour in the next 10 to 12 days”, he said. He used to bowl only the away swingers and yorkers. Zaheer had it all and could do it without much effort. It will come in by the end of October.
[Yuvraj, incidentally, got his first India cap in the same match, but didn’t get to bat. The image of Zaheer angrily pointing his bat at Kevin Pietersen standing at the gully is etched in the memory of one and all. Speaking on it, Zaheer said, “I feel proud that such a great player like Sangakkara praised me”. That was the combative Zaheer. My elder brother, Zeeshan, who dutifully reminded me that, “my job wasn’t finished with my India debut, and that I needed to make every game count”.
Post retirement, Khan will focus on his business venture ProSport Fitness, a chain of gyms that takes a goal-oriented approach towards training professional and amateur athletes.
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Clearly, Zaheer (a member of the 2011 World Cup-winning XI) has made investments wisely. He ended up as the highest wicket-taker alongside Shahid Afridi in the tournament with 21 scalps at an average of 18.76 with an economy rate of 4.83.
