While I write this post, it's been a few hours since Ashok Dinda saved India the blushes, by taking three crucial wickets, right when it seemed that Pakistan would run away with the match. Although this post has nothing to do with the fact that Dinda assisted in India's victory today, but more to do with the rise of Ashok Bhimchandra Dinda that can only auger well for Indian Cricket.
Dinda comes from a small village, west of Kolkata, Mednipur. His penchant for fast-bowling was first spotted by coach, Atal Barman. It was during one of the trips to Kolkata that Dinda made with his family, that he was seen bowling tirelessly in an empty net. Barman pleased with his efforts, asked Dinda to stay back in Kolkata and hone his cricketing skills.
The next what India saw of Dinda was during the 2006/07 Ranji Trophy Final at Mumbai. It was a keenly watched contest, purely because on one side you had Bengal's prodigal son, Sourav Ganguly and on the other side, Mumbai's own, Sachin Tendulkar. It was that odd domestic match that the India regulars got to play. Also, it was one of those few domestic matches that got televised that season. Another young player from Bengal who was having a terrific season, Manoj Tiwary came into spotlight in that match. With a terrific hundred in vain, chasing Mumbai's target of 472, Tiwary gave glimpses of what was to come. Coming back, that was perhaps the very first time I saw Dinda bowl. He was unconventional which was largely due to the high pre-release jump he had. It reminded one of Zaheer's initial days, only that the jump made Dinda look more like a javelin thrower than a fast bowler. Besides that leap, Dinda had decent pace - if I am not wrong, he could touch the 140 kmph mark quite regularly. But what stood out from the rest was his desire to bowl, he just didn't want the ball to be taken away from him. He bowled a total of 41 overs in that match which was second only to the number of overs bowled by Ranadeb Bose (56). It was a different matter altogether that Dinda's only success in the match was the wicket of Rohit Sharma. And mind you, that match had two current Indian cricketers in the likes of Zaheer and Agarkar. So quite essentially, Dinda's USP, right from the start, has been his heart to bowl all the time.
My interest in Domestic Cricket suffered a bit, the following year. It was a lot to do with India's early exit from the World Cup, Ganguly's resurgence and crowning of the World T20 Champions. And the next I got to hear of Ashok Dinda was just before the first match of the inaugural Indian Premier League was held.
Drafted in as a net bowler for the Kolkata based franchise, the Knight Riders, Dinda managed to trouble the likes of McCullum and Ponting quite regularly. As a matter of fact, the then Australian skipper even went on air stating that he was highly impressed by Dinda's skills as a pacer and was amazed at how he could make the ball zip off the pitch. Now those comments didn't come from an alleged 'Bengal partisan' former Indian captain, it came from a batsman who had seen the world's best in the likes of McGrath, Lee, Moody and Gillespie. And as Dinda said later on, the motivation and encouragement from the likes of Ponting played an extremely important role in shaping him up as a good fast bowler. Ganguly who always had the uncanny skill of spotting talent, pushed for Dinda's selection into the squad and eventually into the XI that would be facing Bangalore in the opener. In an IPL debut that became more famous for McCullum's heroics, Dinda managed to take two important wickets upfront, in the form of Jaffer and Kohli and in the process just leaked 9 runs in his three over spell. There was something about him that made you look out for him in the near future.
A decent IPL outing ensured a trip with the India A team to Israel and later in the year, a place in the Rest of India Irani Trophy team. Dinda was in the selectors' radar, a notion that was reaffirmed by his continuous presence in a number of A-Team tournaments leading up to his T20 debut in December 2009. Dinda's International T20 debut was against Sri Lanka at Nagpur in 2009. He got the wicket of Jayasuriya in the first over itself and since then he has been a part of eight more T20Is and is by far India's best T20I bowler (in terms of average) and not lagging too far behind in terms of wickets.
Coming to his abilities, time and again, people have spoke of his 'big-heart'. Even while I write, Sunny Gavaskar made a comment about how Dinda learns from his mistakes and is a lion hearted bowler. Similar praises have come from Ganguly and South African former cricketer, Alan Donald, with the latter even going to the extent of comparing Dinda with himself in his hay days. Dinda has been mentored by the likes of Wasim Akram (KKR), TA Sekar (Daredevils) and Alan Donald (Pune) besides being with the National side, countless times. And that gives him varied knowledge of different conditions and additional skills that have been passed on by the greats of the game. He is someone who isn't afraid to bowl the odd bouncer and in fact has great control over it. Where Dinda errs is his length with a tendency to bowl just a little back of length. While in places like England and Australia, it could do wonders but on slow subcontinent tracks, it leads to easy runs.
As I wrote earlier, what augers well for Indian cricket is the fact that someone like Ashok Dinda is coming through the ranks. He has a lot of experience and has been a regular Ranji performer, leading the Bengal bowling attack for quite some time now. He is at the threshold of making a Test debut and is slowly gaining prominence in India's ODI requirements. We've always heard former Indian captain, Kapil Dev asking for bowlers to give their all out & I believe that in Dinda we finally have someone who can toe Kapil paaji's line. But what really concerns me is his injury management. Time and again, we have seen good promising fast bowlers (like Varun Aaron) get injured, unable to manage the work load. As of now, those concerns haven't come alive in Dinda's case. But assuming that he does get greater responsibility in the near future and is asked to play all three formats, add to that his high jump and the subsequent heavy landing and growing years, will Dinda manage to be India's first injury-free bowler after Kapil Dev? Perhaps something only time can tell.
The next what India saw of Dinda was during the 2006/07 Ranji Trophy Final at Mumbai. It was a keenly watched contest, purely because on one side you had Bengal's prodigal son, Sourav Ganguly and on the other side, Mumbai's own, Sachin Tendulkar. It was that odd domestic match that the India regulars got to play. Also, it was one of those few domestic matches that got televised that season. Another young player from Bengal who was having a terrific season, Manoj Tiwary came into spotlight in that match. With a terrific hundred in vain, chasing Mumbai's target of 472, Tiwary gave glimpses of what was to come. Coming back, that was perhaps the very first time I saw Dinda bowl. He was unconventional which was largely due to the high pre-release jump he had. It reminded one of Zaheer's initial days, only that the jump made Dinda look more like a javelin thrower than a fast bowler. Besides that leap, Dinda had decent pace - if I am not wrong, he could touch the 140 kmph mark quite regularly. But what stood out from the rest was his desire to bowl, he just didn't want the ball to be taken away from him. He bowled a total of 41 overs in that match which was second only to the number of overs bowled by Ranadeb Bose (56). It was a different matter altogether that Dinda's only success in the match was the wicket of Rohit Sharma. And mind you, that match had two current Indian cricketers in the likes of Zaheer and Agarkar. So quite essentially, Dinda's USP, right from the start, has been his heart to bowl all the time.
My interest in Domestic Cricket suffered a bit, the following year. It was a lot to do with India's early exit from the World Cup, Ganguly's resurgence and crowning of the World T20 Champions. And the next I got to hear of Ashok Dinda was just before the first match of the inaugural Indian Premier League was held.
A decent IPL outing ensured a trip with the India A team to Israel and later in the year, a place in the Rest of India Irani Trophy team. Dinda was in the selectors' radar, a notion that was reaffirmed by his continuous presence in a number of A-Team tournaments leading up to his T20 debut in December 2009. Dinda's International T20 debut was against Sri Lanka at Nagpur in 2009. He got the wicket of Jayasuriya in the first over itself and since then he has been a part of eight more T20Is and is by far India's best T20I bowler (in terms of average) and not lagging too far behind in terms of wickets.
As I wrote earlier, what augers well for Indian cricket is the fact that someone like Ashok Dinda is coming through the ranks. He has a lot of experience and has been a regular Ranji performer, leading the Bengal bowling attack for quite some time now. He is at the threshold of making a Test debut and is slowly gaining prominence in India's ODI requirements. We've always heard former Indian captain, Kapil Dev asking for bowlers to give their all out & I believe that in Dinda we finally have someone who can toe Kapil paaji's line. But what really concerns me is his injury management. Time and again, we have seen good promising fast bowlers (like Varun Aaron) get injured, unable to manage the work load. As of now, those concerns haven't come alive in Dinda's case. But assuming that he does get greater responsibility in the near future and is asked to play all three formats, add to that his high jump and the subsequent heavy landing and growing years, will Dinda manage to be India's first injury-free bowler after Kapil Dev? Perhaps something only time can tell.
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