RANCHI: One stands at 6'7", the other at 6'4"; one is 23, the other 24; one has played for his country in every age-group cricket right from U-16, the other took up serious cricket when he was 14 and made it to the national side within four years.
The similarities between Steven Finn and Ishant Sharma, England and India's go-to pacers in the ongoing series, unfortunately, end here; for if you look further, the differences start increasing, almost embarrassingly.
The English fast bowler, for example, is just 27 ODIs old, with 43 wickets in his bag at an average of 26.74; Ishant has played almost double that many (52), picking up 71 wickets at 32.11.
The sharpest difference, however, is in the economy rates: Finn's is a handsome 4.75 while Ishant's is an extravagant 5.66.
Not too surprisingly, Finn has been trusted with leading the English attack which is missing James Anderson and ODI vice-captain Stuart Broad due to injuries; Ishant, too, is the leader of India's pack, and that too only notionally, but even this is more out of compulsion: if Zaheer Khan had not been off-colour, the selectors would probably not have given him a break, at least in this series.
In short, even after spending five years in international cricket, the Delhi pacer doesn't inspire as much confidence as Finn does.
India skipper MS Dhoni, however, doesn't see it that way: he still has loads of confidence in Ishant. That's why he has rotated between Ashok Dinda and Shami Ahmed while Ishant has been a regular fixture since his return.
Of course, Dinda, Ahmed and Bhuvneshwar Kumar have only 20 ODIs among them; that could be one reason why he is being persisted with even though he had gone wicketless in the first two ODIs; worse, he is going at 8.14 runs per over.
The biggest worry is that he just can't bowl yorkers at the death, something you expect from your strike bowler. Finn can do that well and although he, too, has only three wickets to show his economy is less than six.
Is it any surprise that the contest is becoming a battle between batsmen, with the main bowling protagonists taking the back seat for different reasons?
