Pathan, Uthappa: Waiting to open new chapters

Pathan and Munaf speak a common language today, but as the two alternately bowled to Uthappa they rarely exchanged words with the scrutiny team of Ian Frazer, John Gloster and Gregory King keeping a close watch. Besides, Pathan these days has been selective in his words.

After the longish net session there are repeated media pleas for a short audience but Pathan avoids them all. “Let me do something. I will give a long interview and talk about the last six months,” he says. Someone chips in with a desperate last-ditch negotiable offer. Will you give me five minutes in case you get four wickets on Wednesday? “No in case I get five wickets, you can get five minutes. For four, you get just four minutes,” he jokes.

Pathan would be keen to keep the promise since the last time he took four wickets in an ODI game was 11 months back. But the reason he can even joke about such rich hauls is his seven wickets he took just last week for Baroda against Mumbai in the Ranji Trophy semis.

And it is this performance that sees Frazer talk about the man, who is very vital for India’s World Cup plans, with an air of optimism about Pathan’s transformation. “He looks lighter physically. His mind seems to be free now. He seems to have got his rhythm back. The bowling run up is smooth and the release too has improved,” he says.

Frazer says that “keeping things simple” works and sometimes “taking a break away from the tensions and pressures of international helps”.

Those around Pathan also say that the 22-year-old bowler has been relaxed after spending some time at home. “He spent the Id festival at home. He has spent some time with his family and friends and that means his mind is at peace and this has also rubbed on to his bowling too,” he says, in days when even talking about such mundane family matters comes with a condition of anonymity footnote.

The positives don’t stop here, as even the ground realities also favour the local boy. The West Zone member of BCCI’s pitches committee Dhiraj Parsana says that the 22-yards has something in it for the pacers. “There is a sprinkle of grass on the pitch and that can help the new ball bowlers. Pathan, or for that matter any pacer, can hope to get wickets,” he says.

Besides these cricketing reasons the local media has even hinted at some bizarre ways being adopted to help the troubled pace bowler. An eveninger some days back reported a theory about how the family is keen on getting Pathan married to bring him back on track. The authencity of such reports is very questionable, but it hints at how Vadodara is desperate for Pathan to get a big haul on Wednesday.

ROBIN UTHAPPA

• Even as a junior cricketer his attitude gave him a middle name that saw his name read as follows: ‘Robin Cocky Uthappa’. So seeing his swagger as he walked to the dressing room after a busy net session it would be wrong to perceive that he had developed a confident posture overnight after his brilliant show at Chennai.

“I have always played like this. Though I would add that I have matured as a cricketer since I last played for India,” he says. It certainly showed in his batting as he played naturally despite the fact that he was batting along with the fellow-opener Gautam Gambhir, someone also in contention for a place in the World Cup squad. The awareness is also of two world class openers in the squad and one waiting for a comeback.

Ask him about the pressures and expectations that come after such an electric inning, and he seems unfazed. Uthappa isn’t the one to look back, he opts to talks about the next game. “I wouldn’t like to harp on my knock at Chennai. All I want to do now is to repeat by performance here. I missed out on a century there but now I want to go beyond that. The pressure is there but I am not quite bothered about these things,” he says.

Ask him about the logic of lofting just the second ball of Chris Gayle’s first over and he has a ready reason for it. “When one is getting all the shots right and stroking the ball so well such things can happen. I wanted to clear the long-off fielder but somehow failed to do it,” he says.

By now he is crowded by other reporters who have observed that the young star is in an obliging mood. The television cameras too zoom in, but the confident young man is at ease in the spotlight.

Not far away, Pathan is stretching against the wall as he intermittently deals with media intrusion. At the IPCL ground today in mid-afternoon overcast conditions one got to see how the spotlight can be comforting for some and glaring for others.