CRICKET: Zaheer Khan.

ENGLAND are considering whether to unleash their fresh fast bowling find on India - but are certain to encounter a man who re-wrote the definition of a `raw' paceman.

While doubts remain over blooding Simon Jones against a majestic Indian batting side on a featherbed Lord's track, Zaheer Khan, also 23, will be handed the new ball by the opposition.

Zaheer had never played in a proper cricket match until he moved to Mumbai as a 17-year-old, previously honing his skills in the dusty streets of his village in Ahmednagar.

He arrived in Mumbai with hopes of becoming an engineer and enrolled at college but such was his progress on the cricket field that by 1998 he had gained a place in the Indian pace bowling foundation in Chennai, formerly Madras, where he worked under Australian legend Dennis Lillee.