Watching India’s best attack go to pieces — three centuries scored off it in two innings — has been an unnerving experience. Between them, Harbhajan Singh, Anil Kumble, Zaheer Khan and Irfan Pathan have comprehensively underwhelmed the India A batting.The pacers have been the better of the two. In cloudy conditions on the opening day, Irfan and Zaheer troubled the India A batsmen at times. Zaheer looked to be improving each time he ran into bowl on the first day of the four-day tie. He was given a very long spell by skipper Sourav Ganguly and he seemed to enjoy his workload.He has bagged six wickets from the match; add to that the performance in last week’s Irani Trophy and his confidence will surely be on a high. Ganguly praised Zaheer’s effort saying his main strike weapon is ‘‘back to his best’’.Pathan could well have avoided this match, the 19-year-old having had a hectic 10-odd months. He is noticeably taking it just a little easy, no doubt saving up for the rigours ahead.The most disappointing bowling has come from Harbhajan and Kumble, who have never looked like troubling the batsmen.There was a brief spell on Tuesday when Bhajji looked like he would tie the batsmen down but as the day wore on, he failed to make an impact.Kumble, though, is in serious need of some more overs under the belt. Away from action in one-day cricket, Kumble is just getting into the groove. On this flattish bangalore track, he was played with consummate ease by most of the relatively junior batsmen.The possibility of taking his 400th Test wicket next week — on home turf — is a lure he would not want to miss out on.Motivation has probably got a lot to do with contrasting performances of Seniors and ‘A’ team bowlers. There is more at stake for Murali Kartik and Amit Bhandari than Kumble and that could partly explain the gulf in the performances.Kartik and Bhandari, the perennial SOS men of Indian cricket, have also sent timely reminders to the selectors but the question is, will they rise when asked to?
