A mystery

One mystery about Indian pace bowling, or the lack thereof, is how Indian 'quicks' lose pace very quickly after their international debut. And how some, just vanish. Take Zaheer Khan and Irfan Pathan. During the Nairobi cup in 2000, Zaheer regularly bowled at 145 kmph. Now, he'll be lucky to get to 135. He has filled out in all the wrong ways: gained weight, become injured, and lost all nip off the wicket. Two years ago, Irfan Pathan regularly bowled in the mid to high 130s. Now, he's lucky to crack the 130s. As for Nehra and Balaji, they've vanished into the injury tube. RP Singh is here, and bowling in the 130s but god knows where he's headed. Watch out for Sreesanth - soon to play in the ODIs. He'll crack 140 every once in a while. But not for long.