India's bowling performances in the ongoing Test series against Sri Lanka have made for depressing viewing - and it gets worse when you give a look to thre agressiveness quotient to be shown by a side that parades itself as the number one Test side in the world.
Injuries to Zaheer Khan and Sreesanth aside, the current lot of bowlers look anything but a world-class attack; bereft of skill, lacking in confidence, abdicating on intent, the bowling 'attack' has consistently looked incapable of taking 20 wickets. It is easy enough to blame the conditions, and it is not my argument that the conditions have been uniformly helpful - but that said, the attack led by Ishant Sharma has mentally surrendered mentally surrendered not to the conditions, but to their own self-doubts, their own lack of confidence in their abilities as pace bowlers.
On the spin side, Harbhajan Singh and Pragyan Ojha look like human bowling machines - their bowling is mechanical, their intent is non-existent, and their performances are a sad commentary on India's cricketing system and an indictment of the BCCI's handling of the game.
To be fair, I don't blame Ishant and his colleagues alone for their plight. They are products of a system that is not merely commerce- or power-centric, but one that is seemingly anti-cricket, a sytem whose belief in a well-rehearsed yet genuinely flawed template extends to an unholy obsession with producing batsmen coupled with a continuing apathy towards other equally important departments of the game.
The easy way out would be to resort to cliches of the "Fast bowling was never our strength" excuse to explain lack of quality. But that is a cliché whose use-by date has long gone. In the likes of Ashish Nehra, Zaheer Khan, Ishant Sharma and Sreesanth, to cite just four examples, India has in recent times produced bowlers capable of being quick and incisive; the problem is that none of them has been able to last through a season, to maintain the edge. And that is as much the fault of the system as of the bowlers themselves - and the BCCI, in my opinion, bears much of the blame. Clearly, the Board knows what the problem is; it isn't quite as ignorant as we make it out to be - the problem is, it simply doesn't care. Let's explore that argument a little further.
Take the board's absurd diktats, dictated largely by politics and almost invariably contrary to the larger interests of the game. The board, thus, prevents Indian bowlers from plying their trade, during the off-season, in county cricket, which is often considered the best off-season training ground by leading cricketers.
Consider the case of Zaheer Khan, written off by most pundits as a bowler with neither the heart nor the discipline for the grind. He went to Worcestershire for the 2006 season, bowled 70-80 overs week in and week out, picking plenty of wickets at New Road, and returned fitter, fresher and better than he had ever been before, his time on the circuit developing his skills to the point where ever since, he has been the undisputed leader of the Indian attack and arguably among the best left arm seamers in the world. This is what the likes of an Ishant Sharma, or an Irfan Pathan, should have been doing - not shooting ads in Shimla and Kochi.
To make matters right, though we have sporadic tours, we don't really have an A-team culture, which is so necessary as a developmental platform for young talent. Well planned A tours allow developing talent the opportunity to play tough opposition on different kinds of surfaces and thus prepare for the international level; absent such a planned system, players are pitchforked into the world stage before they are ready, they get found out, lose their confidence, and get dumped before they know what hit them.
The same is the case for spinners - who, like the tiger, is rapidly becoming an endangered species. Again, they're victims of the domestic system that forces bowlers into defensive lines - anathema to the art of spin bowling. T20 immersion merely compounds the problem. A spinner in the T20 format goes in thinking 'containment'; such a mindset forces you to bowl flatter, quicker through the air, wicket to wicket without any attempt to turn the ball or to flight. Do that often enough, and it becomes part of the bowler's mindset; he is good only to contain runs with spread out fields.
'Spin bowling' has been systematically reduced to an automaton: a few steps and a mechanical delivery stride, with no intention of giving the ball a tweak, or exploiting the surfaces at play. A left-arm over angle might well work in a T20 game, but in Test matches, it denies you an opportunity of picking a wicket, a prerequisite for a spinner.
Sadly, Harbhajan fits into neither category today, unless of course you're playing at Kanpur or Mumbai. He hasn't bowled a match-winning spell outside India for a while now, and at times looks completely hapless and unimaginative, totally out of ideas for someone who's supposed to be a "lead spinner". And of course, Indian cricket isn't willing to look beyond him for solutions, given his consistency when it comes to non-performance per-se. India must try out different options from the limited ones they have, be it a Ravichandran Ashwin or even a Piyush Chawla, to figure out if they're good enough to make the cut.
Shane Warne was spot-on when he said that a modern day Test-match spinner must be a good Day 1 and a Day 5 bowler. Day 1, because you might have a role to play in keeping one end up, and Day 5, is when as a spinner you're expected to provide the thrust, and to chip in with the wickets.
Finally, it's time to end this obsession with the World no. 1 ranking. The very short-term nature of the fixation blinds us all, metaphorically like a politician so eagerly wanting to stick his butt to the chair and start thinking five years from now. What cricket and particularly the bowling side of it needs, is to come out of the "We are like this only" mentality and to make a start at working towards a long-term vision for our cricket.Team india lacks that agressiveness that is required by ateam that has to stay on the top.It is well and truely said "its easy to succeed but difficult to survive"
Yasir beg
bangalore.
Injuries to Zaheer Khan and Sreesanth aside, the current lot of bowlers look anything but a world-class attack; bereft of skill, lacking in confidence, abdicating on intent, the bowling 'attack' has consistently looked incapable of taking 20 wickets. It is easy enough to blame the conditions, and it is not my argument that the conditions have been uniformly helpful - but that said, the attack led by Ishant Sharma has mentally surrendered mentally surrendered not to the conditions, but to their own self-doubts, their own lack of confidence in their abilities as pace bowlers.
On the spin side, Harbhajan Singh and Pragyan Ojha look like human bowling machines - their bowling is mechanical, their intent is non-existent, and their performances are a sad commentary on India's cricketing system and an indictment of the BCCI's handling of the game.
To be fair, I don't blame Ishant and his colleagues alone for their plight. They are products of a system that is not merely commerce- or power-centric, but one that is seemingly anti-cricket, a sytem whose belief in a well-rehearsed yet genuinely flawed template extends to an unholy obsession with producing batsmen coupled with a continuing apathy towards other equally important departments of the game.
The easy way out would be to resort to cliches of the "Fast bowling was never our strength" excuse to explain lack of quality. But that is a cliché whose use-by date has long gone. In the likes of Ashish Nehra, Zaheer Khan, Ishant Sharma and Sreesanth, to cite just four examples, India has in recent times produced bowlers capable of being quick and incisive; the problem is that none of them has been able to last through a season, to maintain the edge. And that is as much the fault of the system as of the bowlers themselves - and the BCCI, in my opinion, bears much of the blame. Clearly, the Board knows what the problem is; it isn't quite as ignorant as we make it out to be - the problem is, it simply doesn't care. Let's explore that argument a little further.
Take the board's absurd diktats, dictated largely by politics and almost invariably contrary to the larger interests of the game. The board, thus, prevents Indian bowlers from plying their trade, during the off-season, in county cricket, which is often considered the best off-season training ground by leading cricketers.
Consider the case of Zaheer Khan, written off by most pundits as a bowler with neither the heart nor the discipline for the grind. He went to Worcestershire for the 2006 season, bowled 70-80 overs week in and week out, picking plenty of wickets at New Road, and returned fitter, fresher and better than he had ever been before, his time on the circuit developing his skills to the point where ever since, he has been the undisputed leader of the Indian attack and arguably among the best left arm seamers in the world. This is what the likes of an Ishant Sharma, or an Irfan Pathan, should have been doing - not shooting ads in Shimla and Kochi.
To make matters right, though we have sporadic tours, we don't really have an A-team culture, which is so necessary as a developmental platform for young talent. Well planned A tours allow developing talent the opportunity to play tough opposition on different kinds of surfaces and thus prepare for the international level; absent such a planned system, players are pitchforked into the world stage before they are ready, they get found out, lose their confidence, and get dumped before they know what hit them.
The same is the case for spinners - who, like the tiger, is rapidly becoming an endangered species. Again, they're victims of the domestic system that forces bowlers into defensive lines - anathema to the art of spin bowling. T20 immersion merely compounds the problem. A spinner in the T20 format goes in thinking 'containment'; such a mindset forces you to bowl flatter, quicker through the air, wicket to wicket without any attempt to turn the ball or to flight. Do that often enough, and it becomes part of the bowler's mindset; he is good only to contain runs with spread out fields.
'Spin bowling' has been systematically reduced to an automaton: a few steps and a mechanical delivery stride, with no intention of giving the ball a tweak, or exploiting the surfaces at play. A left-arm over angle might well work in a T20 game, but in Test matches, it denies you an opportunity of picking a wicket, a prerequisite for a spinner.
Sadly, Harbhajan fits into neither category today, unless of course you're playing at Kanpur or Mumbai. He hasn't bowled a match-winning spell outside India for a while now, and at times looks completely hapless and unimaginative, totally out of ideas for someone who's supposed to be a "lead spinner". And of course, Indian cricket isn't willing to look beyond him for solutions, given his consistency when it comes to non-performance per-se. India must try out different options from the limited ones they have, be it a Ravichandran Ashwin or even a Piyush Chawla, to figure out if they're good enough to make the cut.
Shane Warne was spot-on when he said that a modern day Test-match spinner must be a good Day 1 and a Day 5 bowler. Day 1, because you might have a role to play in keeping one end up, and Day 5, is when as a spinner you're expected to provide the thrust, and to chip in with the wickets.
Finally, it's time to end this obsession with the World no. 1 ranking. The very short-term nature of the fixation blinds us all, metaphorically like a politician so eagerly wanting to stick his butt to the chair and start thinking five years from now. What cricket and particularly the bowling side of it needs, is to come out of the "We are like this only" mentality and to make a start at working towards a long-term vision for our cricket.Team india lacks that agressiveness that is required by ateam that has to stay on the top.It is well and truely said "its easy to succeed but difficult to survive"
Yasir beg
bangalore.
Well, the cliche "Fast bowling has never been Indian side's mgiht" is the only apt explaination why do we lack genuine pace attack. Unlike other nations, we don't have any trendsetter. Kapil was good and a great allrounder. But never a great fast bowler. Sreenath was the best, I personally think. But never a perfect bet, I am sure. Our troubled neighbour's only solace on the cricket field is pace sensations like Aamer Aif and Gul — all formidable,awe-inspiring and brilliant. Sri Lanka too now have Lasith Malinga to show off after Chaminda Vaas faded into memory. Both these countries have seen as many misfortunes in recent years as we have seen assets being added to our already inflated Cricket Board. You are right in dissecting that never the guys who sit in Brabourne Stadium cared to build a cricket culture in the country. It's all gung-ho inspired by the recent success and achievements in quick cricket. Our batsmen are no match in quick versions. They'll do that in Sri Lanka also, you wait and see.
ReplyDeleteBut the pathetic shape of spin bowlers is really very disappointing. Harbhajan is good, at times great, at times wayward and preposterous. But after Kumble, who? Sri Lanka have got Mendis and must be many more aspiring to be next Murali.
Despite all these, future is not black as we have Tendulkar, Sehwag, Gambhir, Raina, Dhoni and many more of their ilk coming and most importantly the Indian character that never ceases to surprise on any turf.
NICE VIEWS .. ANAS
ReplyDelete