Munaf

Watching Munaf Patel bowl in his first Test match at Mohali was a bit like reading the first page of a novel that hinted at greatness. It wasn't that India hadn't produced fast bowlers before him, but here was a young man taking his first steps on the big stage as though he belonged there.
---
“I’m very happy that I’m playing international cricket again. There was never an issue about my bowling, it was my fitness, and now that I am fit everything else is sorted out. I’m happy with the way I am going and hitting the seam and have been hitting consistently in the late 130kmphs,” Munaf said.

His utmost priority is to a go through an injury-free season and for that, he said, he's bowling well within himself.
---
In a chat with The Indian Express after practice at the SCG nets, the lanky Maharashtra seamer said he was feeling better than ever with his international comeback and said his bowling gave him greater confidence to once again get into reckoning with the speed gun. “I’ve just made a comeback into the team after battling from injuries previously and I am steadily getting there. For me to bowl fast again is not a problem, I can again crack the 140s easily. Woh to mera natural cheez hai, who kaise chhutega? Tez toh mein waapas dalunga. I don’t want to rush into the speed race straightaway,” he says.
---
So what is the truth then ?

Are we dealing with a man who, after battling injuries, fitness issues and lost telephone numbers, is finding his feet back into International cricket and is bowling well within himself or a bowler who Mr Premachandran describes as

Watch him bowl less than two years on, and you find it hard to believe you're not watching an impostor. The pace is gone, the yorkers are nowhere to be seen, and the only movement on view is the swing of the batsman's bat before the ball disappears. Apart from one over where he had Kumar Sangakkara edging over slip and then inside-edging just short of the 'keeper, Munaf's spell was an exercise in listlessness.