If there is some curiosity surrounding the young pace bowler Mohammad Khalil, there is one very good reason for it. He is Pakistan’s first left-arm pace bowler since Wasim Akram left the stage two years ago. In a depleted pace attack that the Pakistan touring party will carry on its tour of India, Khalil will surely have a big role to play if the team decides to play three seamers in Tests. That the Pakistan team management regards him very highly can be noted in the manner in which Khalil was called up last year before the India series to bowl at the nets. Though Khalil never got a chance in that home series, he left an impression on Pakistan team members. On the recent Australia tour, Khalil came in to bowl after all his senior partners had been being carted around and could not give himself a fair chance. Khalil, who comes from the town of Shahtara, near Lahore, relies very much on swing but became cannon fodder for most Australian batsmen. Still, the selectors have chosen to give the young left-armer one more chance by including him as the third paceman in the team for the Test series against India. If there is one thing that the young bowler wants to remember is what Imran Khan told him a few days ago. ‘‘You have been given a golden opportunity. Never let it go.’’ Having taken four wickets in a domestic match after his selection for the tour, Khalil seemed pleased about his build-up for India series. ‘‘I am working on my inswing with coach Bob Woolmer and have spent some time with Waqar bhai,’’ said Khalil. There was also the ‘big meeting’ with Akram recently (on the first day of the team’s two-day camp in Lahore) that kept the young paceman excited. The camp gave him an opportunity to learn the art of reverse swing with the old ball and the lethal inswing with the new. Like Pathan, Khalil too happened to be on his first Test tour to Australia. ‘‘Everything looks so similar between me and him. Our careers have been running almost parallel,’’ observed Khalil. Having visited Kolkata last year with the ‘A’ team for a tri-series, Khalil believes the pitches in India will not deliver a killer blow to pacemen. ‘‘That was an enjoyable experience. If they were any indication the pitches there are good with good carry and bounce,’’ noted Khalil. My dream is to get Sachin’s wicket: Rana Khalil will be very important in India because he is basically a swing bowler, very much like Irfan Pathan. There are others in our bowling line-up who are good. Sami is the second fastest bowler in Pakistan and will lead the attack. It’s my dream to get Sachin Tendulkar out once in the series. We are working on strategies and have been looking at Indian batting tapes. Hope everything works out soon. One thing that I do know is that if you are bowling to a top-class batting line-up like India’s, the key is to bowl a couple of maiden overs which can frustrate them at times.
