Praveen Kumar - Respect

[Teja.]

With your best bowler gone, You'd expect the bowler with 100 tests under his belt or atleast the pacer with 30+ tests to step up and deliver but instead we have a young pacer who's playing his 4th test basically single-handedly making sure a repeat of South Africa did not happen. Incredibly mature performance from him and he's impressed in every test he has played so far.

5-107 is nothing to laugh at but it doesn't do justice to the consistency he has maintained over the last two days. Him taking a 5-fer at Lords felt so good after backing him for a test spot for 3 years. When you can put in efforts like this, who cares if you can't bowl at 90 mph. Hero.

Here's hoping that he has a great test career.

Statwatch:- 17 wickets @ 21 in 4 matches along with holding the bowling together and always holding up one end.

 

[Cevno]

WAG!!!!saying he could have bowled more too

 

[vcs]

Bowled very well. Good call by those who backed him without any reservations. Could have had Pietersen as well if Dravid had been standing a touch closer at leg slip.

 

[Furball]

Won't ever be a superstar but looks like he should be a pretty decent option who'll have his occasional game where he makes opposition lineups look foolish.

 

[Bun]

wag!! test bowling aint all abt pace mate.

 

[Cevno]

He can bowl really long spells as well,which is awesome and a advantage.

 

[BoyBrumby]

Yeah, will have to have some humble pie here. Has been a genuinely herculean effort from the suspiciously aged-looking twenty four year old today.

When he gets it wrong he looks so awful I still can't quite bring myself to say I was wrong, but has gone a lot better than I thought possible based on what I saw of him in the Caribbean.

 

[Jono]

Very proud of him.

 

[vcs]

He does look a lot older than 24.

 

[Cevno]

True How old is Munaf?

 

[Howe_zat]

Pfft. I'd sooner believe his kids are 24.

 

[centurymaker]

munaf's 28
praveen's almost 25
i'd say he's more like 26/27

 

[Dissector]

Yeah a most impressive performance. Even if he hadn't taken 5 wickets, his ability to bowl long spells while keeping things reasonably tight is very valuable to India given how often Zaheer gets injured and how woeful both Ishant and Sree are in these situations. This test definitely establishes him as a test pick ahead of either of them.

 

[centurymaker]

tbf to praveen he's been bowling a tad faster in england.

in west indies he was around 75-77
over here he's been 78-81

yesterday he was inaccurate but today he rectified his mistake

 

[zaremba]

Respect.

 

[BoyBrumby]

Yeah, he'd slowed (understandably) by the end of England's innings today, but I saw him crack 80mph a couple of times yesterday and I honestly didn't think he was capable.

Still think Dhoni stands way too deep to him tho.

 

[Jacknife]

That is a surprise, 24 years old, wouldn't have guessed that.
Fair play to the lad, he stuck at it and took on a big work load, while his bowling team mates, looked a bit clueless.

 

[keeper]

Bit of a throwback in some ways. Great effort and not inconsiderable skill.

 

[slowfinger]

The guy knows how to bowl. He swings it both ways consistently and controls it. His pitch map is awesome and can trouble KP, when hes loooking tough aswell...
Respect, he should go far.

 

[slowfinger]

And he knows the meaning of the word 'banter'