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...And Bowling Woes

We live in uncertain cricketing times.  We aren't sure whom to really believe and whom not to. A fair amount of cleansing needs to be done.  One of the things we should also do, is to re-focus on the game. India, especially, needs a lot of focusing.

The Indian team's batting has caused it a lot of worry throughout the Australian tour and the recent South African one at home. McGrath's nagging off-stump line and Brett Lee's pace had induced extreme diffidence on bouncy pitches in Australia. Pollock, Donald, Kallis and Hayward deepened the doubt on reasonably flat pitches in India. However, I don't think this is the real worry.

The bowling is, and should be, our main concern and that's where I shall begin. The lack of reserve strength in Indian bowling is shocking. Apart from Srinath and Agarkar, and Prasad to an extent, the fast-medium bowling cupboard is pretty much bare. Kumaran, from reports in Australia, held some hope. But from what I saw of him in Kochi against South Africa and in the other one-dayers, there was a serious lack of penetration. He seemed particularly flat. A very low arm action, he didn't seem to give the ball a chance to swing.

Agarkar holds a lot of promise, he has the ability to swing the ball late. He can get the ball to lift, too.  But he needs to understand that the lifting ball off just short of a length should be his surprise weapon. His strengths are his fuller length and movement. He needs to develop more control and not try too many things. A lot of his overs have one very bad ball. He needs to cut this out, and fast. He has a certain confidence to him, however, and will learn. Prasad's is a strange case. He is the type of bowler who will dominate batsmen if they prod and push. Unfortunately, most batsmen appear to have realized this. If you attack him, he seems to lose the plot. A man of his build, you'd think would be capable of generating more pace and bounce. But, unless he sees a genuine seamer’s pitch, he appears content to be merely steady.

Srinath - I fail to understand.  At times, he seems to do everything but take wickets. He reminds me of Rodney Hogg in a few series against the West Indies in the early '80s.  He used to match the West Indians for hostility, but would never catch the edge. The problem is either a combination of not the right length and not precise enough movement off the pitch and in the air, or just plain bad luck. I'd like to think it is the latter, but it might be a bit more of the former. If you watch McGrath, there's a lot of similarity, except his line and length is razor sharp and there's a lot more control in the movement. The movement is not as pronounced as Srinath's inswing for instance, but is just what's required to get the edge.  Also, for a bowler of his pace, yorkers should come naturally. He is strangely hesitant to bowl them. The last time he bowled them consistently was in that fabulous spell in Ahmedabad against South Africa a few years back. He hasn't learnt from success. That, is worrying.

To the spinners now. Joshi's bowling is beginning to blossom. He's a very under-rated cricketer. He bowled splendidly in the one-dayers amidst rather ordinary bowling around him. He showed a fair amount of variation, gave the ball just that bit of flight to induce doubts in batsmen's minds. Especially in his opening spell in the Kochi one-dayer, he bowled a beautifully controlled length. He's our best left-arm spinner currently and should play in tests.  Happily, Ganguly seemed to show a lot of confidence in him. Kumble is very hard-working and continues to amaze with his stamina. Sometimes, during the recent South African test series, he seemed like the only bowler who could get wickets. But, sadly, although he's improved a bit on pitches away from home as seen in a few probing spells in Australia, he still is far from a match-winner outside of India.

Chopra is not really test match material yet. He was flat and looked to have no variety in Bangalore. Everything about his bowling seemed way too plain and straightforward. Kartik, on the other hand, has potential and a sound head on his shoulders. He has nice flight and loop. He needs to develop an arm ball however, I didn't see a nice one in two tests. As to the other bowlers, there's nothing really to even comment on. Harvinder Singh is sadly not heard of much these days. I'm not sure what's happened to him. He'd the nicest action seen from an Indian fast-medium bowler in a long while, and seemed a strong, willing learner. He'd his action re-modelled for some strange, unfathomable reason and then seems to have paled into obscurity. Nehra, I sort of liked, the first time I saw him in the last Sri Lanka away series. But, he seems to have gone out of selectorial favour after that. Among the spinners, Harbhajan is worth encouraging, but about the rest, I'm not so sure.

So much for the bowling.  The batting I believe, despite being much maligned in recent times, is more promising. (See accompanying article on the batting woes - Ed)

Krishna Kumar

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