Glimpses of Glories always came in front of our eyes whenever we imagine one of the best innings played by finest of pace-allrounders which became benchmark as well as inspirational knocks equally mesmerized by bowling spells. To remember a few, one of the innings which was not broadcasted due to BBC Strikes came at real time to save India’s Journey in 1983, yes it was Kapil Dev’s whirlwind knock of 175 not out against rival Zimbabwe, one of the crucial and beautiful knocks of tournament, as there was no holding back for Winners 1983 of world Cup After that and there is no hesitation that it went on to inspire generations and still world remembers Haryana Hurricane for his heroics at Tunbridge Wells.

When to comes to one of the challenging format of Cricket, nothing beat Test Cricket. Skill, patience, technique and determination all are tested at its best when it comes to longest format of game. And it turns out to be pleasure watching pace all-rounder scoring quickest test double century in 163 balls at cape town by one of the best rising talent Ben Stokes, one of the Finest player of this genre. In the past Jacque Kallis, Shaun Pollock, Andrew Flintoff, IT Botham, GS Sobers and modern-day heroes Jason Holder, Tom Curran, Chris Woakes, Marcus Stoinis, Angelo Mathews and Hardik Pandya to name few have showcase promising performances in their career to achieve tag of genuine pace bowling all-rounders. But question arises here, India country which has been largely dependent to spin bowling in the past before having pace battery in recent years, have shown some talent in this special genre but it will be not wrong to say we do not have Kapil Dev 2.0 in our weapon to destroy opposition. Pace Bowling All-rounder capable of playing across formats, handle pressure of test matches, hit ball in the slog overs and is Mr. dependable in tough situations and can inspire present millennials.

Let’s have look in the past, we remember Ajit Agarkar and Irfan Pathan who had displayed good skills in batting and bowling especially latter have been tried as top order batmen during period of Greg Chappell coaching national team. But one of the great swingers of ball lost his touch and finally got dropped from the team. Both Ajit & Irfan have test centuries in their name, Irfan Average around 31.5 in test cricket. After that Stuart Binny’s name came as another player who can fulfil role, he was not consistent enough to perform well and finally was axed from team. His best performance came in one of the best target defended by India, match vs Bangladesh where he performed excellent in his spell and ended with 6 wickets while giving just 4 runs in 4.4 overs with economy rate of 0.85. In Current times we have Hardik Pandya who is leading this pack, Vijay Shankar & Shivam Dube other promising players but to prove his abilities and domestic talents like Kamlesh Nagarkoti who are future potential players for grabbing opportunities. 

In India if we talk about domestic circuit IPL & Ranji Trophy have always been nurturing local talent from last decade and preparing them for challenge they will face in international cricket. Question lies do we have done enough in our domestic circuit to encourage and nurture pace bowling all-rounders?