India's Pacers Need To Step Up Their Game

[asprin]

Agreed. What I wanted to convey was that the desperateness shown towards a fast Indian bowler is very valid. And it is bound to make Indians very excited on seeing a prospective bowler who bowls consistently over 140+ kmph.

The fact that we've had more than a couple who could that when they started their career and then gradually turned themselves into mediocre medium pacers adds salt to injuries which directly increases the desperation level.

 

[Riyan]

No, we do have fast bowlers but we insist on picking medium pacers consistently due to reasons other than cricket.

But apart from Shami our fast bowlers don't have accuracy

 

[surendar]

I don't understand the obsession with pace. Umesh Yadav has pace and I was really excited about him, but he just sprays it all over the place. I think there is a tendency and a temptation to get carried away by someone who can bowl fast. However, bowlers still have to bowl balls of substance, because otherwise, it's just easier to pick them off for boundaries.

It's at the least bearable to see a quickie spraying everywhere compared to medium pacers spraying everywhere. In the end, everyone gets smashed all over without a clue & keep their place in team XI still.

It's not obsession with pace, it's obsession with ability to bowl. I don't really care on how many are in pipeline because, whoever appeared on INTL arena, they are supposed to be fishing somewhere than playing cricket except few who tried hard to master @ the art of bowling.

Ankola, Kuruvilla, Kumaran, Mohanty, Harvinder Singh, David Johnson, VRV Singh, Nehra, RP Singh, Balaji, Munaf Patel, Mhambrey... I can just keep writing this pathetic list of bowlers who never had their competence to survive in their profession on a big stage for last 2 decades.

 

[sifter132]

The obsession with pace comes from knowing that IF the bowler can get it right, he will be very difficult to play. Mitchell Johnson has just been the latest example. REALLY good when he gets it right. Even when he was a bit more wayward, Johnson's Test record was still better than most international bowlers.

Shaun Tait sprayed it most of the time but he was really good in the 2007 World Cup and the odd series here and there (England ODIs in 2010 was one). Same for Shoaib Akhtar, a lot of times he was rubbish, but he was a real handful plenty of times as well. Picking bowlers on pace is more a hope that they'll get it right. It's a gamble.

Given India can't really find anyone to bowl fast right now, I think they should at least try the quickest guys they can. Giving them exposure at the top level will soon reveal any shortcomings they have.

 

[War]

India as everyone knows has produced 3 quality fast bowlers in its 72 year international history: Dev, Srinath & Zaheer. So if they can get any three of the current lot of Shami, Yadav, B Kumar to become of similar like coming years - it will be historical for IND cricket.

 

[sifter132]

^Yep you're right, and lets be honest, even Zaheer has been very sporadic... How many Test series has he dominated in his 10+ years of Test cricket? You could count them on one hand.

India's just a tough environment to breed fast bowlers, from the conditions of the grounds to the lack of natural size and athleticism in the population. It's understandable that Indian fans want to produce fast bowlers like South Africa, England or Australia seem to be able to. But be assured, those countries have their own jealousy of India - young batsmen of quality seem scarce to them, while India has found a few.

 

[cricket_icon]

^Yep you're right, and lets be honest, even Zaheer has been very sporadic... How many Test series has he dominated in his 10+ years of Test cricket? You could count them on one hand.

India's just a tough environment to breed fast bowlers, from the conditions of the grounds to the lack of natural size and athleticism in the population. It's understandable that Indian fans want to produce fast bowlers like South Africa, England or Australia seem to be able to. But be assured, those countries have their own jealousy of India - young batsmen of quality seem scarce to them, while India has found a few.

Totally agree with the explanation in bold. I just think much of the Indian population lack the physical consistency and strength to produce genuinely fast bowlers, the same goes for Bangladesh and Sri Lanka who are both worse than India in terms of producing pace.

Pakistan seems to be different for what ever reason, having guys who are 6 foot plus and bowling at 90 or more mph, producing the leading fast bowlers on the planet since the 80s on wards. Australia and South Africa are the other 2 great fast bowling nations, I wouldn't really count England as we have a tendency to stick with line and length bowlers who get it up to about 85 or 86 mph max. Can't actually think of the last seriously quick England bowler who had a satisfying England career...Flintoff in spurts ?

India has produced great batsmen no doubt but great batsmen can't win overseas test series', especially against very good teams outside of the subcontinent. We've seen that reflected in India's quite honestly terrible form overseas. Having lost recent test series against Eng, Aus and SA and doing so quite convincingly in most cases, this for a team ranked so highly is not acceptable. Then again I guess that leads into a whole new discussion on how the rankings works lol

 

[zeustrojanstark]

Bhuvi Kumar is seriously becoming useless.

I expected so much from him, he looked really promising, i still remember the first ball wicket in my hometown M.A.Chidambaram Stadium, Chennai.

 

[sifter132]

I think Kumar will be decent, just the expectations are a bit too high for him at present. Give the lad a chance to settle into international cricket - he's only been playing for just over 1 year! Ishant on the other hand has had about 7 years to realise his talent...

 

[SaiSrini]

Bhuvaneshwar Kumar becomes useless if there is no help from the conditions. He is very much like Praveen Kumar. The only thing going for him is he has a slightly higher pace than Praveen, and also an ocean's difference in attitude/body language.

With his attitude, if he can do the hard work, he can do well.

 

[IceAgeComing]

Genuine question; why have India never managed to develop a truly great quick when Pakistanhave loads of them. It can't be the quality of the pitches (Pakistani pitches are somehow flatter than Indian ones), it has to be something in the setup. A theory that I've heard is that Indian fans are much more likely to glorify batsmen than bowlers (Tendulkar etc) so people are more likely to go into batting, while bowlers woild probably go for spin becuase its the way of getting wickets.

Pretty much, the BCCI needmto spend their millions on looking at Pakistan and copying that to the letter...

 

[asprin]

A theory that I've heard is that Indian fans are much more likely to glorify batsmen than bowlers (Tendulkar etc) so people are more likely to go into batting

I believe that is the most logical reason. Pakistan have had legends in the bowling department whereas India didn't. There are no role models in India when it comes to bowling.

I'm pretty sure every new kid who holds the bat wishes to become Tendulkar one day, but not many would like to be a Kapil Dev or Srinath for that matter.

 

[IceAgeComing]

Dev's the only one that I could think of - but he was an all-rounder and all I see on the internet from Indian fans is people talking out his batting even though his bowling stats for the subcontinent are absolutely phenomenal... Also, it probably wouldn't be fun toiling at Ranji + lower levels on Indian roads as a fast bowler for your entire career...

 

[sifter132]

More stats on India's bowling:
Numbers Game: India's bowling woes in overseas ODIs | Cricinfo Magazine | ESPN Cricinfo

 

[asprin]

Surprising to see Ishant being the second best bowler average wise.