Vadodara, Sep 02: Javagal Srinath or Ashish Nehra? Zaheer Khan or Ajit Agarkar? Guess who is the fastest bowler in India. If you've ticked any one of these stalwarts, you've failed the tricky cricket test.
It’s Munaf Patel. Yes, if pace legend Dennis Lillee knows what he is talking about, this unknown lad from an unknown village in Bharuch called Ikhar is the country’s fastest speedster. He hasn’t, of course, played even a Ranji match yet.

Lillee spotted Munaf when he came to Chennai for a stint with the MRF pace academy recently. Apparently, he clocked between 140 and 150 kilometres per hour like a well-tuned BMW on a regular basis.


The country, or at least our top players, will soon see him in action: Munaf has been asked to come for the ongoing training camp of the Indian team in Bangalore. He’s one of the nine fast bowlers who have been invited by the board to give the batsmen a little more pace to play with.

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“We have identified a couple of other fresh fast bowlers,” says national selector and Baroda Cricket Association secretary Kiran More. “Sachin and Sourav can have a look at these youngsters. Besides, Kapil Dev will also spend a few days at the camp which will be good for young lads like Munaf.”

Gujarat Cricket Association president Narhari Amin is already thinking big for the Bharuch lad. “He has done very well both at the National Cricket Academy and at MRF. I would not be surprised if he makes it to the Indian team soon,” he says. “He is easily the fastest bowler we have.” Munaf came into the limelight while playing his first first-class match for Gujarat against Saurashtra in the under-25 tournament.

Saurashtra captain Jaydev Shah retired hurt with a broken finger after getting hit by a Munaf bouncer; another batsman had his ribs tingled and the rookie ended up with five wickets on debut.