'Dharamshala is a high-altitude ground, ball travels differently' - Zaheer Khan's advice to Harshal Patel after off outing against Sri Lanka

India’s latest bowling star Harshal Patel proved to be notably expensive in his four-over spell against Sri Lanka in the second T20I on February 27. Patel ended up conceding 52 runs in his quota, picking a solitary wicket. The bowler who is known for his death bowling was taken to the cleaners as he gave away 19 runs in the 17th over of the Sri Lankan innings and 23 off the last over.  

Commenting on the bowler’s rare off day, former Indian pacer Zaheer Khan, stated that Patel would need to adjust better to the high-altitude conditions in Dharamshala. It must be noted that India would be playing at the same ground in the third and final T20I of the series. The former left-arm pacer also opined that though he does not see an issue with Patel’s execution, the bowler might have to fine-tune his skills per the conditions.

“When you are bowling those kinds of slower-ones they have to be spot on and the dip also has to be there. Dharamshala is a high-altitude ground as well so the ball also travels differently. Like you are seeing with sixes travelling the distance – it’s the same while bowling as well,” Zaheer told Cricbuzz.

Whether it’s a yorker or a slower one, you might need that little bit of adjustment which Harshal needs to do. I don’t see it as an issue in terms of execution of things or how he’s approaching his bowling. It’s more of a fine-tuning with regard to the conditions. Maybe add that altitude aspect and see how you can do things differently,” he added.

We should not judge him too much: Dinesh Karthik on Harshal Patel’s recent outing

Another opinion on the matter was that of Dinesh Karthik, who added that the bowler does possess the ability to bowl good yorkers and just had a bad outing in the previous game. Karthik feels Patel who also bowls at a decent speed is allowed to have an occasional bad day without being judged too much.

“He’s got a very decent yorker and with his action, the ability to bowl a leg-stump yorker is very good. He’s got that skill, he doesn’t shy away from bowling the odd bouncer and bowls mid-130s which is decent speed. Yes, somedays he’ll get hit for runs and that happens with every bowler and that’s the day today for him. I don’t think we should judge him too much,” Karthik said.

Though the 31-year-old went for a few runs in the previous game, he remains to be a crucial part of India’s bowling set-up with his wicket-taking ability. Patel has been soaring high on the back of his stellar IPL season last year and had recently bagged a Rs 10.75 crore contract with the Royal Challenger’s Bangalore in the 2022 IPL mega auction.