Captains making the bowling look even worse?

I made -what I would call- an noteworthy observation while hearing members of our world cup winner team doing commentary during a tight match. I specifically noticed their approach towards the game and couldn't help comparing them with current cricketers. While they were assessing a bowling change in the match saying the bowler is useful in given situation as he is slow and mostly accurate, if you make an offside cordon and bowl consistently offside … and stuff like that, a recently retired cricketer described the same situation as the bowler being ‘trusted’ by the captain to handle the situation, and bail his team out. Then he laid on the rhetoric of the bowler having a knack for taking wickets in tight situations, having a golder arm and stuff like that. He probably finds a bowler talking wickets in tight situation- a surprise.

This gives you an insight of how bowling change is being regarded in modern Indian cricket and how it is different from yesteryear’s cricketer’s approach.

Dravid, for example, makes bowling changes as and when needed but also at times seemingly just to carry out proper bowling-over distribution among all his bowlers. We have seen, especially in many tight matches, that he often misses out on various potential bawling options. We have seen him, at least once forgetting what bowling options he has at all, haven’t we?

This lack of planning, when a bowler is asked to bawl, this ad-hawk-ism about bawling changes pressurizes the bowler to do a lot more thinking then he should require to. Look at an Australian or a Kiwi match, the captain looks like in control all the time. You hardly feel that a certain bowler is being ‘trusted’. The captain looks like having a plan. Because he has a plan you would also see him admonishing a bawler when he thinks the later is not bowling to the plan.

You would hardly see Dravid giving indications of being in control, a bowler looks like being on his own most of the time.

Is bowling training up to snuff

What turns an ordinary talent into batsmen’s nemesis. I say the training that he gets to bowl the ‘other’ 4 or 5 deliveries. Every bowler who is playing international cricket is expected to have enough talent to bowl at least 1 potential wicket taking delivery every other over. With that, maintaining the right line and length during the other 4 - 5 deliveries not only gives him control as he is not giving away runs but also lets him use his talent of swing or seem movement etc to its full lethal potential as he’s already practiced enough to bowl in the corridor of uncertainty. A good experiment fetches you maximum dividends in the corridor of uncertainty.

During last few years of Shrinath’s career, he was bowling consistently in the corridor of uncertainty; he was most dangerous then thus. He, however, learned it himself and it took him all his experience to do that. You look at any new bowler in Australia, you will find him doing the same but not at the end of his carrier- Nathan Bracken, for an instance is not hugely talented or experienced but is a force to reckon with within a few years of his playing international cricket. He may not have potential to take a wicket on every delivery but he sure wont give you easy runs.

We are not short of talent. We are lucky to have Irfan Pathan, who is able to swing the cricket ball dangerously, we have bowlers like Ajit Agarkar, who with an amazing wrist action can generate serious pace, swing the ball and bowl whistling Yorkers at death. What these two have, they thwart in the ‘other’ (in their case) 3-4 bawls that they bawl.

Shrinath, just before retirement, was acting as the spear head of our pace attack, we could see his consistency visibly getting brushed on to the other two bowlers- Zaheer an Ashish, and the trio formed an attack which was a pleasure to watch. He was probably acting as the bowling coach of the team unknowingly at that time. We all saw, how Waseem Akram's guidance had turned Irfaan from a raw talent into a finished product. Our bowlers are direction less right now. They need guidance, thats it.

Importance of keeping Tendulkar in team.

He is too precious a player to be kept out of any team.

Even if he is going thru a rough patch it makes sense to keep him in team. Why? Well like I said he is too gifted a player. What do I mean by that? Well, do you remember, during a long partnership between Tendulkar and Dravid, in which Tendulkar was showing the world how easy it was to play the most formidable spinner in the world. Following his foot steps Dravid tried playing paddle sweep, and after a few tips from his senior partner, he was not just managing it but enjoying playing the shot.

Tendulkar is richest as a batsmen in terms of shots that he has. You look at Sehwag, we still often talk about him in terms of how many of ‘those all shots’ he has been able to imitate. He flashed and now it seems he is charging his batteries, and while he is doing that, you often hear him telling newsmen how he hasn’t been able to decipher where Tendulkar, gets all his energy from.

While entire team has his shoulders down, is taking a break away from performing, this veteran is looking as fresh and young as ever. Its actually only by looking at Tendulkar that you feel like thinking about the problem that the (rest of the team) team might be facing or otherwise we would all have given it to the conditions in south Africa by now.

I would like to add, like Srinath's presence helped our younger bowlers; Ganguli's presence allowed many Indian batsmen improve upon their timing and rediscover the art of hitting 'safe sixes', Tendulkar's presence plays a huge role and is a critical factor to the teams growth process.