by '..1982-83 season, to return that incredible series haul of 40 wickets
at 13.95 runs each. That this happened in the grudge series between the
two countries (following Pakistan's 2-0 rout by Gavaskar's India early
in 1980) lent form and meaning to the threat hurled by Majid Khan during
the December 1979 Bombay Test: ''Come to Pakistan and we will show you!"
What a show in Pakistan it was by Majid's nephew, Imran Khan, in 1982-83
to sew up the Karachi Test (with match figures of 11 for 79); the
Faislabad Test (with 11 for 182); and the Hyderabad (Sind) Test with (8
for 80). That decided the *** 3-0 in favour of Pakistan, setting the
stage for our Cricket Board to summon Kapil Dev, 'on the quiet', across
the Wagah border _ behind the back-to-the-wall of skipper Sunil
Gavaskar, who thus realised how vainly he had batted through the Indian
innings (127 not out) in the Faisalabad Test.
As Gavaskar lost the '82-83 series and the Indian captaincy, he had
ruefully to concede that he had seen no bowler in the world swing the
ball the way Imran Khan did in those six Tests. The dice and the ball
alike looked 'loaded' against India. The phenomenon of a highly
penetrative fastie like Imran Khan being adept enough to 'reverse swing'
a series was unknown till then.
The man who handpicked the new ball for Imran Khan, in each one of those
three decisive Tests, was Sarfraz Nawaz, his bete noire today. Imran is
on record as saying that he always wanted Sarfraz Nawaz by his side, if
only to spot out the new ball that would get things 'moving' for
Pakistan. ''He always seemed to know which ball would swing more and, as
a result, Sarfraz would always make the choice when the umpires
presented a box of new balls to us, just before we went out on the
field,'' notes Imran Khan in his Autobiography, published in the very
year (1983) in which Gavaskar's India came to be 'smashed to pulp' in
Pakistan. ''Sarfraz taught me more about swing bowling than anybody,''
adds Imran, ''disclosing to me little titbits he refused to discuss with
other bowlers.''
Such was Imran's efficacy with the new ball of Sarfraz's choice that the
Indian players even suspected that the red cherry was 'doctored'. What
baffled Gavaskar, Amarnath, Visvanath and Vengsarkar was how Imran could
in-dip so right-angularly on pitches on which, in those three Tests that
mattered, Kapil Dev, disastrously for India, lost his out***
altogether!
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