India's Bowling Woes

So often we have seen the Indians put up a bulky total batting first – periodically thanks to a certain Tendulkar - and then also watch the bowling let all the prior effort down. There are a few ways to look at this problem

The flaw which stands out amongst others is sheer lack of consistency - the key aspect of bowling which the recently named Indian Test Captain Anil Kumble possesses and utilises to his great advantage. The bowlers all look good. Take R.P.Singh as the example; rhythmic run into the crease, one flow right from the top of his run up to the end of his follow through, nice shape on the ball and great use of the left arm over the wicket angle. Unfortunately for RP, in addition to all this technical correctness, there is this other factor which helps determine the true ability of a bowler from a more holistic point of view.

Cricket is tough – more so for bowlers. One who bowls five ‘peaches’ and gets hit for six of the last ball still has the rather unnoteworthy ordinary economy rate of 6.00. This is what happens to the Indian bowlers.

The Indian medium pacers have developed a typical over which goes something like this. Dot, beaten, beaten, one stolen run, (this is when the commentator says “It’s been a good over so far.”), on the pads, clipped for two and overcompensation from the bowler, wide and cut away for four. That’s seven runs off the over.

Even five mediocre deliveries which give away singles and one dot is better than this. The bowlers may argue that pressure has been put on the batsman with the ball passing the bat frequently. What use is putting the pressure on the batsman if a succeeding ball is there to be hit away?

This is something this Indian bowlers really have to work on.-BS