Zaheer Khan counting on MS Dhoni’s experience for 2019 World Cup

Zaheer Khan counting on MS Dhoni’s experience: Former Indian fast bowler sounded confident about the veteran cricketer.

Former India fast bowler Zaheer Khan believes that the current Indian team is ready for ICC Cricket World Cup 2019. Talking about players standing tall on their respective roles, Zaheer felt that all the team has ticked all the necessary departments.

“At this stage also we can say this team is ready. Most of the players pick themselves, even the spinners – numbers suggest that they are the ones who are changing the momentum in the middle overs and putting pressure on the opponents.

“The fast bowlers are ticking the boxes by picking early wickets and giving spinners the platform to dominate; then you have the top three batsmen who are so consistent. All in all, the consistency and formula of success is also clearly defined. We have bench strength as well,” Zaheer, who is now on a mission to promote amateur cricket through his brainchild, the Ferit Cricket Bash, said.

Being a bowler, Zaheer relished the fact that contemporary bowling unit comprises of bowler who support each other. “When you talk about bowling, you have to have a bowling unit supporting you. In this series [vs Australia] also, you look at the distribution of wickets, all the bowlers have played a part.

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“Looking at the bench strength, you have the likes of Bhuvneshwar and Umesh, it is suggestive of the fact that the depth in the line-up has been a factor in making the bowling unit look very good,” he added.

The 40-year old specifically talked about fast bowler Jasprit Bumrah, who ended the Test series against Australia as its joint-highest wicket-taker. Hailing his willingness to learn, Zaheer was wax lyrical about Bumrah’s variety.

“It’s great to see Bumrah’s career. The contributing factor has been that he is willing to learn and keeps adding to his armoury. He has a big inswing and now he is backing it up nicely by learning the delivery that goes away. He has a great yorker along with a very good slower one, which makes him really good in the shorter format as well. He has the X-factor in him as well, which is the unorthodox action,” he said about the 25-year old.

Being asked about former India captain and wicket-keeper batsman Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Zaheer mentioned that the 37-year old cricketer brings more than just his game to the table. Having picked 221 out of his 610 international wickets under Dhoni, Zaheer seemed to count on his experience ahead of the world event.

“Dhoni is not just bringing his game to the table. Pressure plays a big part at the World Cup and he has vast experience; we can see how active he is behind the wicket as well, sharing inputs with the captain,” Zaheer concluded.