Cricket World Cup: Why India's pace attack is its strength

Many were called 'bits-and-pieces' cricketers (who could bowl a bit and bat a bit), but with a couple of exceptions - skipper Kapil Dev being the biggest one - most wouldn't find a place in the team for their bowling alone.There was Madan Lal, Roger Binny, Sandeep Patil, Mohinder Amarnath and only two specialist medium pacers, Balwinder Sandhu and Sunil Valson. 

India called on six bowlers in that game. Patil wasn't needed, and nor was opener Krishnamachari Srikkanth who in later years was good enough to claim five wickets in an innings against New Zealand with his off spin. Amarnath's gentle (almost kind) pace contributed to his Man of the Match awards in both the semi-finals and final.

But 40 years ago, the essence of one-day cricket was slightly different. The focus was not so much on taking wickets as on keeping the run-scoring in check. Over the years, the emphasis shifted to dismissing batters (on the sensible theory that a batter who is out cannot score runs), and now the need is for wicket-takers rather than defensive bowlers.

In that squad, apart from Khan, the medium pacers were S Sreesanth, Munaf Patel, Ashish Nehra and Praveen Kumar while Harbhajan Singh, Piyush Chawla and Ravichandran Ashwin were the spinners. The focus was clearly on pace then, as it is likely to be this year too.Amarnath's gentle (almost kind) pace contributed to his Man of the Match awards in both the semi-finals and final.

But 40 years ago, the essence of one-day cricket was slightly different. The focus was not so much on taking wickets as on keeping the run-scoring in check. Over the years, the emphasis shifted to dismissing batters (on the sensible theory that a batter who is out cannot score runs), and now the need is for wicket-takers rather than defensive bowlers.Sports writer Suresh Menon has written books on Sachin Tendulkar and Bishan Bedi.