Why have Indian pacers, over the decades, bowled so few deliveries on the the off-stump to 5th stump lines ?

[express bowling]

Having seen great pace bowlers bowl over the decades, one thing that always stood out was that they were always on or around the off-stump line. The batsmen were always in doubt as to whether to play the ball or to leave it.  They could not leave deliveries easily but were afraid of playing them too.  That was one of the biggest reasons for their success, along with pace, bounce, movement etc.

 

Ideally, a pacer should look to target the top of off stump to top of 5th stump with their stock deliveries, which they should look to bowl 5 times or 4 times an over. This should be punctuated by 1 or 2 surprise bouncers targeted at the back shoulder of the batter.

 

Indian pacers, over the decades have usually gone for the outswinger and ended up being too wide with it. A good percentage  of deliveries were /  are  bowled  on the 6th stump to 10th stump. This makes it easier for the batters to leave the balls or the balls missing the edge. The plays and misses may look spectacular but does not get regular wickets.

 

Another thing our pacers do or have done, especially the quicker pacers, is bowling too many deliveries on the leg stump or leg and middle. This line also does not get regular wickets. Others have been too full or too short.

 

In the '80s and earlier, in the era of poor protective gears, we saw pacers bowl a lot of shorter balls. But, even then , most deliveries were on the off stump to 5th stump line  ( unless they were targeting the ribs with a leg slip and short leg as a specific tactic ).

 

Indian pacers have typically underused the surprise bouncers too, which pushes the batters on the back-foot. This aspect has improved a lot in recent times though, especially when Shami is bowling ( whose frequency, direction, pace and bounce is wonderful while bowling bouncers, very similar to Srinath ). Apart from Shami and Srinath, the other pacers usually under-bowl the bouncer and then over-bowl it in patches or misdirect it with wrong lines or lengths.

 

All this has resulted in India not producing a single pacer averaging 28 or lesser in test marches in our history

 

Today, we saw Lakmal bowl such a wonderful line but our two most accurate pacers were not so good with their lines.

 

Indian pacers till 2010 have been criticized for lack of sufficient pace, but we have never really produced any really accurate pacers either, and I wonder why  !

 

Our pacers should focus on bowling the off-stump to 5th stump line, ball after ball, while maintaining pace and bounce and hitting the deck hard.  Mr, Bharat Arun should see to it.

Edited December 10, 2017 by express bowling

[Trichromatic]

As if it is easy to be consistent on that line. Whenever they tried to bowl on that line, they drift to middle stump and get worked on to boundary.

 

That dents the confidence of bowler and then tries to go for safer line which is way outside off with all fielders packed there.

[Lannister]

Lack of good coaches. Under Kumble, we could see some improvements from their side, but under the current regime back to being joke. 

[express bowling]

2 minutes ago, Trichromatic said:

As if it is easy to be consistent on that line. Whenever they tried to bowl on that line, they drift to middle stump and get worked on to boundary.

 

That dents the confidence of bowler and then tries to go for safer line which is way outside off with all fielders packed there.

 

So, how do top international pacers do it or have done it  over the decades  ?

 

We are talking about about 5 best pacers of our hugely populated country doing it and not any normal Ranji bowler.

 

Moreover, getting hit is not a big problem in test matches.

 

 

[vvvslaxman]

Zaheer was one of the best to bowl that channel. Ask Graeme smith. He always had problem in picking Zaheer.

[LORD_analyst]

indian pacers have low iq...even trundlers bowled better line and length...pathetic

[Trichromatic]

19 minutes ago, express bowling said:

 

So, how do top international pacers do it or have done it  over the decades  ?

 

We are talking about about 5 best pacers of our hugely populated country doing it and not any normal Ranji bowler.

 

Moreover, getting hit is not a big problem in test matches.

 

Hitting off stump line consistently is skill and that's the primary skills of all ATGs. Population doesn't matter in this case. India didn't have a good team for majority of cricketing history and population was no lower than other countries back then. 

 

Tests or ODIs these bowlers have been under pressure to bowl safe. See how confident spinners are tossing the ball up, but they are getting hit, flight decreases even in tests. It's quite natural for a bowler at any level. Captain gives you field outside off and when batsman flicks, they automatically go back on wide line.

[express bowling]

7 minutes ago, Trichromatic said:

Hitting off stump line consistently is skill and that's the primary skills of all ATGs. Population doesn't matter in this case. India didn't have a good team for majority of cricketing history and population was no lower than other countries back then. 

 

Tests or ODIs these bowlers have been under pressure to bowl safe. See how confident spinners are tossing the ball up, but they are getting hit, flight decreases even in tests. It's quite natural for a bowler at any level. Captain gives you field outside off and when batsman flicks, they automatically go back on wide line.

 

Bhai, top pacers of other countries are doing it or used to do it.

 

It depends a lot on recognizing the fact that this is our objective  and then practicing it.

 

And both are missing.

[express bowling]

32 minutes ago, MultiB48 said:

, the bowlers are also not persistent enough, our pacers have been used as a defensive option for long , its an attacking line and can go for runs but once you get it right then it's difficult for the batsman.

These are some of the reasons.

 

We lack persistence and doing the same thing over and over again. We get bored easily.

 

And we have used pacers as defensive options over the decades.

 

Just look at our usual field settings .... not enough slips in most cases compared to other top bowling teams.

 

Funny thing is ... bowling wide of off or on the legs, leads to bowler leaking even more runs while not picking enough wickets.

 

 

 

 

[Trichromatic]

11 minutes ago, express bowling said:

 

Bhai, top pacers of other countries are doing it or used to do it.

 

It depends a lot on recognizing the fact that this is our objective  and then practicing it.

 

And both are missing.

I doubt that they don't recognize it. They know this, but they aren't confident enough about their skills to do it. They are also not good enough to do this.

 

Remember how Younis Khan was stumped on first ball of 4th or 5th day off Anil Kumble's delivery in test match. What they had actually planned that Kumble will bowl at ball and middle and leg and see if YK falls over giving India a chance for LBW. They had a set specific plan, then Kumble ended up bowling a ball down the leg instead of that middle and leg line and luckily he was stumped out.

 

Pretty sure something similar happens to bowlers on many ocassions. It can be a nice flowchart to explain how Indian bowlers fall behind at different levels.
 

[express bowling]

16 minutes ago, MultiB48 said:

traditionally ind pacers are told to pitch it up and make the batsman go for the drive and get the edge by swinging it ,not bowl a tight line .

 

That is very true.

 

It must also be said that, good deliveries by top swing  bowlers usually pass the batsman on a 5th stump to off stump line although they may end up on the 7th / 8th  stump or middle stump / leg stump due to the swing 

 

Here is Richard Hadlee bowling ... see from 1.18

 

 

 

[express bowling]

10 minutes ago, Trichromatic said:

I doubt that they don't recognize it. They know this, but they aren't confident enough about their skills to do it. They are also not good enough to do this.

 

Remember how Younis Khan was stumped on first ball of 4th or 5th day off Anil Kumble's delivery in test match. What they had actually planned that Kumble will bowl at ball and middle and leg and see if YK falls over giving India a chance for LBW. They had a set specific plan, then Kumble ended up bowling a ball down the leg instead of that middle and leg line and luckily he was stumped out.

 

Pretty sure something similar happens to bowlers on many ocassions. It can be a nice flowchart to explain how Indian bowlers fall behind at different levels.
 

 

We are not talking about one-off plans or spinners here.

 

Someone like a Bhuvi recognizes it largely , Shami and Bumrah to some extent .... but the persistence to be " boring " is still lacking.

 

The tendency to try drastic variations is too strong.

[express bowling]

Here is Malcolm Marshall bowling ( ball by ball ) .... such impeccable lines .... batsman could not leave anything

 

 

 

 

[speedheat]

Actually its not hard to target that off stump if you practice it properly.

[express bowling]

Here is Bumrah bowling off stump to 5th stump lines and picking up 4 wickets

 

He needs to do this more often instead of bowling so many leg and middle stump deliveries 

 

 

 

[Trichromatic]

48 minutes ago, express bowling said:

 

We are not talking about one-off plans or spinners here.

 

Someone like a Bhuvi recognizes it largely , Shami and Bumrah to some extent .... but the persistence to be " boring " is still lacking.

 

The tendency to try drastic variations is too strong.

That one off plan is just example to show that players know what they have to do, but are unable to do so.

 

Ishant Sharma knows that fuller will help him, but that just doesn't come naturally to him. He is not good enough to execute that plan. Same goes for other bowlers. They see batsman leaving the balls easily, they try to get closer to stumps, get hit for fours and then go back to wide of off stump line. 

[Trichromatic]

13 minutes ago, express bowling said:

Here is Bumrah bowling off stump to 5th stump lines and picking up 4 wickets

 

He needs to do this more often instead of bowling so many leg and middle stump deliveries 

 

 

 

They don't bowl on leg intentionally.

[Mosher]

Its a no-brainer that fast bowlers should always target off stump or 4th stump line. Exception being when the ball is reversing and they want a bowled/LBW or on a surprise full length delivery like a yorker. I think our pacers try to bowl the magic delivery which pitches on middle and hits the top of off. More often than not that ball does not swing and ends up on the batsman's legs for easy pickings. BK and Bumrah are very accurate bowlers so I am surprised they didn't bowl in that off stump channel on a pitch that was helpful for fast bowlers.

Edited December 10, 2017 by Mosher

[Vk1]

Not so sure about lines but some of our pace bowlers need to go to England to play County cricket. They need to forego ipl for two seasons, BCCI should compensate in the interest of the Indian team. English conditions teach the art of controlled swing..add late swing to your armoury and you will become a Hazlewood level. 

[fineleg]

2 hours ago, Vk1 said:

Not so sure about lines but some of our pace bowlers need to go to England to play County cricket. They need to forego ipl for two seasons, BCCI should compensate in the interest of the Indian team. English conditions teach the art of controlled swing..add late swing to your armoury and you will become a Hazlewood level. 

We keep writing. None of it will happen.

They just play IPL, and BCCI won't care beyond that.