Zaheer Khan Say's Her Fitness

I am slowly building towards fitness: Zaheer Khan

By all accounts medium-fast bowler Zaheer Khan is on the road to recovery and set to test his repaired hamstring and ankle in India’s domestic first class competition. The 33-year-old who went down with a reported hamstring strain on the first day of the opening Test at Lord’s cricket ground on July 21 after a spell of 2 for 18 in 13.3 overs has given hints of returning to competitive cricket that will eventually determine his availability for the long tour of Australia set to start in mid-December.

Zaheer bowled for three-quarters of an hour to the Mumbai batsmen including skipper Wasim Jaffer at the Brabourne Stadium, Cricket Club of India (CCI) in Mumbai on Wednesday. The home team, after extracting six points from Railways in the Ranji Trophy league match against Railways at New Delhi last week, was preparing for its second match against Rajasthan to start on Thursday.

Though it was initially reported that Zaheer was nagged by the hamstring of his landing foot (right leg), the BCCI clarified on August 7 that “Zaheer Khan is suffering from a recurrent right hamstring strain and a right ankle impingement. He will require a surgery for his ankle followed by intensive rehabilitation for both the ankle and hamstring. He will need at least 14-16 weeks to recover completely.’’

He underwent surgery in England in August 18 and was on crutches. He has been training at the National Cricket Academy in Bangalore. “ I have been bowling like this for almost two weeks. I bowled six overs here today. I am feeling good, but I am only building up (towards match fitness). I have some more time to go. He (Mumbai coach Sulakshan Kulkarni) may be happy, but I am not,’’ said Zaheer after giving tips to Mumbai’s fringe bowlers and a chat with Rajasthan skipper Hrishikesh Kanitkar.

Clearly Mr. Kulkarni is happy with the news that Zaheer will be available for two Ranji matches. “He bowled for about 45 minutes and he looked brilliant. He must have bowled about 36 balls. I am happy with the way he’s shaping. He is likely to play Ranji Trophy matches (maybe against Orissa from Nov. 29 to Dec. 2 and against Saurashtra from Dec. 6 to 9) to ascertain fitness.’’

Recovering from a freak calf injury while training with the Mumbai team and keen to play a club competition to make sure he’s fit, Ajit Agarkar said that Zaheer appears to be working on his rhythm. “Yes, he looked fine bowling about six overs. Normally you bowl about eight in net sessions. He may not have gone flat out in all deliveries, but he looked better than what I expected of him to be,’’ said Agarkar.

Mumbai captain Jaffer said: “I faced him in the nets today and he looked good. He’s slowly building up (towards fitness) and I have also heard that he’s looking forward to play the Ranji matches.’’