Hell has frozen over for India.....

My earliest memories of watching India play were in the 1996 World Cup held in the subcontinent.

Watching Javagal Srinath play, I asked my father whether he was a good bowler. My father chuckled and told me that he was nowhere near the likes of McGrath. I innocently enquired whether we would ever be as good as Australia in the pace bowling department.

"Only if hell freezes over" was my father's reply.

Twelve years later, and it seems that Hell has frozen over. Gone are the days when India relied on spin to win matches.

Nowadays, pace is the name of the game. India has never been a powerhouse when it comes to pace bowling; neighbouring nation Pakistan has traditionally played that role.

Ever since the beginning of Indian cricket spin has ruled the roost, with pace bowlers included in the team only as a formality.

Australia had Lillee and Thompson;, England had Willis; the West Indies boasted of Ambrose, Marshall and Holding; and Pakistan had Sarfraz Nawaz and Imran Khan.

India had the famous “Spin Quartet” of Bedi, Chandrashekhar, Prasanna and Venkatraghavan. Abid Ali was India's fast bowler in the seventies.

As times progressed, so did Indian fast bowling.

The legendary Kapil Dev was the fastest bowler ever to have played for India in the 1980s. He led the Indian attack with the likes of Chetan Sharma and Madan Lal. For along time, this was India's best pace bowling attack.

With the nineties came the likes of Srinath, Prabhakar and Prasad.

The latter two were India's best bowlers, even though neither of them carried a serious pace. This attack depended more on line and length rather than speed. Both were largely inconsistent.

The fast bowling revolution began with the turn of the millennium.

Zaheer Khan was a promising find and was touted to be the next bowling spearhead.

In his initial series he showed a lot of promise.

Ajit Agarkar was also one of those bowlers who had debuted in the late nineties, but never left a mark until the 2000s.

The World Cup in 2003 was a chance for young Indian fast bowling to showcase its potential, and it did not disappoint.

Ashish Nehra took 6/23 against England in one of the most sublime spells of fast bowling. Agarkar and Zaheer also impressed. Nehra however, was later dropped due to poor performances.

In 2003, at the Indian tour of Australia, a young lad named Irfan Pathan came to be noticed. His dismissal of Adam Gilchrist is still etched in many’s mind.

He had the devastating combination of pace and swings at his fingertips. Wasim Akram mentored him in his early years, which shaped him as a bowler.

The historic tour of Pakistan in 2004 unearthed another diamond.

Laxmipathy Balaji paired up with Pathan to decimate the much-rated Pakistani batting order.

Javed Miandad had to eat his words and Irfan Pathan became an icon in India.

This inspired many more fast-bowling aspirants in the country to pursue their interests.

When a certain bowler like Nehra or Agarkar would lose form, a standby fast bowler like Pathan or Balaji was always available.

Munaf Patel made his name in the test series against England. The paceman from Gujarat put England to bed single handedly, as he has since lost form.

In the 2007 T20 World Cup, Sreesanth put in some great performances adding to India's already growing pace bowling arsenal. Joginder Sharma also showed amazing maturity.

In India's tour of Australia of 2007, another fast bowler grabbed the headlines.

Ishant Sharma came into the limelight by taming Ponting & Co.

Later in the CB Series, Praveen Kumar took ten wickets in the last three matches to bowl India to a famous win.

The recently concluded IPL, also threw up some talents out of absolute obscurity. MS Gony and Yo Mahesh are touted to be the next fast bowlers to don the Indian jersey.

Today as I look at India's team sheet for the Tri Series, I realize that Indian pace bowling is clearly on the rise.

Pace bowling wins matches and the dependence on spin bowling has almost been negated.

I think today, Hell has frozen over.