I think Australian fast bowlers usually tend to start their international careers (Lillee, McGrath, Brett Lee) around 22-23 years (I haven’t looked up the actual statistics to back me up on this one, though), whereas Indians tend to blood them a bit early. Having said that, there are always exceptions – I remember that McDermott started at the age of 19 (although he had his share of injuries).

I think there are quite a few things that contribute to the fitness of players and there is probably enough there to warrant a separate article. But let me point you to two examples – one from India and the other from Australia that kind of breaks the stereotype you mentioned.

1. Kapil Dev. Started his career when he was just 19, spearheaded Indian fast bowling for the major part of his career in the hard unforgiving wickets in the sub-continent and yet didn’t miss a single match owing to fitness.

2. Shane Watson. Young cricketer, lots of promise, trains hard, looks extremely fit and yet breaks down in the middle of almost every series.

…but you are right though. India needs to work on the fitness of young players (fast bowlers particularly – who are more prone to injuries than others) before they give them their international caps. We are seeing a pattern with young fast bowlers and injuries and it would be a pity if BCCI don’t act on it.

In Australia, the players reach their peak by late twenties. They slowly ramp up their abilities from early twenties. In between lots of fitness training, and lots of excellent fine tuning of skills. However, in India, we expect them our players to peak in early twenties. Is there a danger in this? Danger of injuries that could sideline our players permanently? We have lost Balaji, Nehra, Munaf Patel, and many others – they never really recovered after some excellent performances. Any thoughts on this?

Didn’t get to see the Challengers. The reason that players like Mishra aren’t in my list is because I was trying to keep it under 10! I was tossing between Amit Mishra and Iqbal Abdulla, but went with Abdulla (no specific reason here) in my list, but I’ll definitely be keen to see how he goes.

YoMahesh and Ishant Sharma pipped Abu Nachim to the list…but will keep an eye out for him…