Derby (England): Having finally established himself as the pace spearhead of the Indian team in the absence of veteran Javagal Srinath, Zaheer Khan is all geared to rattle the opposition in the deciding Test against England by some real quick bowling.

Zaheer bowled his quickest in the Headlingley Test, which India went on to win by an innings and 46 runs and though his match haul of three wickets did not do enough justice to the way he bowled, he impressed all and sundry with his sheer pace and length.

"I've always believed in bowling quick and can get quicker over a period of time," Zaheer said while revealing it was his captain Saurav Ganguly who had asked him to bowl faster in short spells.

"Saurav told me he was going to use me in short spells and wanted me to go flat out," said Zaheer who touched over 90 mph (150 kmph plus) on the last day of the Test.

Zaheer also greatly benefited from a piece of advice from Srinath on a recent tour to the West Indies where the great Karnataka speedster shared his know-how of English wickets.

"Srinath said the key to bowling in these conditions is to pitch the ball up, hit the right length and allow the ball to swing.

"Fortunately, this is the kind of stuff I bowl most of the time, pitching it up, reverse swinging and bowling yorkers... Still I need to work constantly on it and it is working," Zaheer said.

But Zaheer is not the only left-arm paceman in the team and has competition in Ashish Nehra.

Zaheer downplayed it though. "Our bowling style is different. Mine is to hit the deck and extract pace from the pitch. Ashish relies more on swing. So it helps us to bowl in tandem."

Zaheer has had his trouble with umpires when he comes from over the wicket and appears to run on to the pitch in his follow through.

"Honestly, the warnings by umpires never affect me. I know my strengths and how to deal with it. Even if I come close to the wicket and tread on it, I know how to adjust to it."

Zaheer says he comes closer to the wicket in order to present a batsman with the difficulty of angles in his deliveries.

Much as Zaheer has earned his reputation as a paceman, two of his most notable achievements on this tour have come with the bat - first giving a helping hand to Mohammed Kaif in India's memorable triumph in the NatWest trophy final and then batting in tandem with the 17-year-old Parthiv Patel to save the second Test at Trent Bridge for India.

"NatWest final is a good memory. There were a lot of nerves. The pressure was on and we needed 13 runs to win. I just knew I had to keep my end safe and give strike to Kaif who was playing exceptionally well."

Once Kaif managed a boundary in the second last over, only two runs were required from the final over. I knew I have had to hold my nerves and two runs were definitely going to come. I just needed to keep my calm," he said.

Extras:
Sehwag slams ton as India draws against Derbyshire
Thatscricket.com Special: English Summer