Irfan Pathan: His bowling action and other thoughts

[Fontaine]

http://www.indiancricketfans.com/showthread.php?p=464674#post464674 As part of this thread above, there seems to be a lot of misconceptions, half truths and confusion about Irfan Pathan and his remodelled bowling action so I'll try to create a new thread here to share some opinions and observations. Hopefully we can keep this thread going when Pathan plays to add other observations. I'll go by chronological order contrasting his success vs his bowling form. Irfan Pathan 2003-2005: Pathan burst onto the international stage as Indian cricket's golden boy. An athletic, physically strong and gifted left handed medium-fast bowler who swung the ball with guile and accuracy that was beyond his years. His lethal delivery was the ball that swung into the right hand batsmen pitched on off stump that swung and seamed into the batsmen to get edged onto the slips. Like a magician, Pathan would alter the line of this delivery and pitched it inside offstump to swing it into the pads for a certain lbw (as he didn't generate huge bounce) or come crashing onto middle or leg if the batsmen left a gap between bat and pad. Bowling speed: 123 - 128 kph Bowling run up: Angled in towards the crease with an easy run up that gained full speed three paces before delivery. A high enough jump (1-1.5 feet) with the ball being looped behind his ear and brought forward in a swinging action until it ended up beside his should at head high, but with the elbow and fore arm pointing backwards.* Bowing delivery: As the ball reached it's pre-delivery point beside his ear, Pathan performs what I call a 2-1 cadence. Quite often listening to a delivery style is just as important as watching. And this is where the 2-1 cadence comes in. When Pathan makes his leap he has a modified side on action, but when he lands he has a quick 2 step with his back foot and front foot landing in quick succession, while the arm comes down for delivery his hips swing forward making the bowling action much more front on, and better and less injury prone in my opinion. You can try it on your own if you bowl, or have a listen to a Pathan delivery and you'll hear what I mean. Finally, excellent use of bowling from close to the wicket. I don't know who worked with Pathan on this but they deserve a lot of credit. Instead of burdening a young bowler with angles etc, they just got him to bowl from very close to the wicket, which meant he was bowling wicket to wicket so sorting out his line was easier and he just had to focus on his length which he did well. Bowling Success: ICC's emerging player of the year. Largely due to excellent showing in test matches, primarily due to a good wrist position at delivery which maximising swing on offer plus an uncanny accuracy rarely found in such a young bowler which meant maximum swing was used in the right line/length. Bowling Analysis: Over complicated bowling action pre delivery (almost like performing Bharat Natyam instead of bowling - see picture 1a-2004). Poor use of fore arm when he gets his wrist position before delivering (see picture attached 1b-2003). Too much movement in his shoulders in this looping delivery action putting the joints/ligaments under pressure (see picture 1c-2004).

[Fontaine]

Pathan doing his Bharat Natyam impersonation: Picture 1a-2004, shoulders, head position all wrong, wrong wrong.

[Fontaine]

1b-2003 - As you can see while the ball itself is in good position. Poor use of fore arm (should be much more vertical, instead of cocked back) because with a straighter, vertical arm it's easier to use the fore arm muscles during delivery to control and push the ball faster instead of what Pathan is doing now which generates all the force from the shoulder leading to injuries. This is how Pathan was bowling in the Australia tour where he bagged his first test wicket (was it Heyden?)

[Fontaine]

And finally picture 1c-2004. Again too much happening here with movement of the shoulders, forearm, hand looping the ball around all at different angles. Pathan admitted that even at this stage he had problems with his bowling action and subsequently approached Ian Frazier and Chappell about his lack of confidence in this bowling action, asked for help, but there was no time. BCCI had money to make, cricketers to market so Pathan didn't get a few months off to work out the kinks in this bowling at places like the MRF.

[msb1991]

The massive misconception was that Irfan Pathan was ever any good at Test cricket. His statistics have been boosted massively by destroying Bangladesh and Zimbabwe. From the beginning of his Test career to now, ignoring Bangladesh and Zimbabwe, he averages 45.49 in Tests which is shockingly poor. There was a slight decline, but keep in mind that the strike rate improved in 2006 from 2005. In 2003: 1 wickets at 160.00 In 2004: 20 wickets at 35.25 In 2005: 13 wickets at 45.53 In 2006: 18 wickets at 49.66 In 2007 (having changed action): 1 wicket at 110.00 In 2008: 8 wickets at 39.25 However, it is true that the change of action has severely damaged his ODI career. Keep in mind that all but one of his 13 ODIs in 2007 were prior to changing his action... In 2004: 32 wickets at 30.71 In 2005: 27 wickets at 28.96 In 2006: 35 wickets at 25.37 In 2007: 13 wickets at 45.76 In 2008: 16 wickets at 43.06 The fact is that he was always a potent ODI bowler, prior to changing his action, even as he lost pace in 2006. It is a sad realisation, but it is perhaps true that Pathan merely needed to recover from injuries and increase his strength to regain his strength, keeping in mind that his ODI performances were not on decline prior to changing his action.

[Fontaine]

Irfan Pathan 2006-Present: We all know about being sent back from a tour (SA I think), the world cup debacle and Pathan not being played in any match, all while his pace dropped increasingly, batsmen were thrashing his around and he eventually was dropped altogether. What a fall from grace, etc, etc! So what happened during this time? I'm not going to focus on the drama but the changes made to the bowler since his comeback. I'll continue to focus on his bowling action/style/analysis: Bowling Speed - 125 and dropping towards that back end of 2006 until he was dropped and sent home. Bowling Delivery - Still a mess. See picture 2a-2005. Far too much going on in terms of his run up, the shoulders are moving too much, and he's still looping the ball around, only now it's becoming clear there's something wrong. He's losing his accuracy and pace/swing. Although Pathan still picks up wickets he's not the same threatening bowler. Bowling Analysis: Pathan is losing momentum in his run up, effectively he's trying harder but getting less out because increased effort only leads to more jerky movements of his shoulders and hips which take away momentum from his delivery stride and arm action. In effect, since Pathans delivery is so loopy and disjointed, and he has poor position of his fore arm, it makes it hard to transfer momentum from his run up to his belivery to get more pace. Picture 2b-2005. Here's an excerpt from the expert coaches at the MRF:

"Pathan was loading up early, his bowling arm was behind his right ear. His delivery stride was long. As a result, he was jumping out and losing balance. He was not using his front arm, was round-armish in his action.” The answer lay in fixing his run-up. “His shoulders were swaying in his run-up and he was twisting to get into a side-on position. Instead of the front shoulder and the foot pointing towards the batsman, they were facing second slip.” A left-arm bowler had to load up on his right leg, but Pathan was doing so on his left. Sekar says Pathan’s load-up was shifted to his right leg, which enabled him use his front arm to pull the body through. This combined with a run-up of gradual acceleration meant he is now bowling with greater pace and swinging the ball into the right-hander. The use of the non-bowling arm as a lever is another critical element from Lillee’s coaching manual. If used well, the front arm can help generate more pace, lend greater balance in action and provide more accuracy. The manner in which McGrath pulls his front arm down at delivery stride is exemplary.

[Fontaine]

Picture 2a-2005

[Fontaine]

Picture 2b-2005/6

[Fontaine]

Irfan Pathan 2006-Present: Cont'd: When Pathan returned to the international stage with his remodelled action, he was included into the side starting from the 20/20 world cup onwards. Bowling Delivery: Much straighter run-up with an easier leg action where he seems load up better. The bowling action is much more economical, with a focus on the same wrist position as before but now avoids the complicated looping movement to bring the ball from behind his head. Instead he winds up by bringing the ball just up to his head and shoulder (correctly in line with bowling shoulder), and releasing the ball without falling away too much with the same hip thrust as before. Better use of right arm to balance himself and push for more pace. Bowling speeds: Up to 135-136 now and still has that swing and is using it effectively against Australia in swinging conditions. He's now threatening left handers out as well as right handers with this swing. See picture 3a-2007/8 - remodelled action. Much cleaner, simpler and less can go wrong. Overall conclusion: I think Pathan is well on his way back. Strengths: When there is swing on offer, Pathan is still finding it (as he did against Australia). He's a strong, confident bowler who has learned how to bowl swing to left handers as well. His pace has improved slightly to push 135 but that shouldn't be the focus with him. He still uses the seam and wrist position well and can use his run up and pre-delivery stride/load up to transfer momentum to his bowling. Weakenesses: Tries to do too much at times when there isn't swing. Isn't really an effective bowler when there isn't swing on offer as he hasn't learned effective variations in line/length/angles to bowl on flat tracks. Overall I think Pathan is an excellent prospect. The focus for him needs to be one of continuing to get used to his re modelled action in terms of his accuracy. He should bowl from close to the wicket in order to bowl wicket to wicket to get his rhythm right first so that it's easier to bowl the right line and he just has to focus on length. Once he can get this consistency then he can start experimenting in trying to bowl further away from the crease and use angles. The second focus for him is to continue to gain experience in learning how to bowl variations in slowers balls, going over/around the wicket. This will take a few years obviously but first and foremost Irfan, bowl consistently from one side of the wicket, from close to the wicket and get that line and length right before you go "experimenting." The Asia Cup was a perfect example of this. RP Singh kept is simple, Irfan kept trying to do too much. Pic3a-2007

[msb1991]

I disagree and feel that you are oversimplifying by saying that Pathan is merely 'trying too much'. He is clearly not swinging the ball nearly as much as he did in the start of his career and has lost accuracy of both length and line.

[Fontaine]

However, it is true that the change of action has severely damaged his ODI career. Keep in mind that all but one of his 13 ODIs in 2007 were prior to changing his action... In 2004: 32 wickets at 30.71 In 2005: 27 wickets at 28.96 In 2006: 35 wickets at 25.37 In 2007: 13 wickets at 45.76 In 2008: 16 wickets at 43.06 The fact is that he was always a potent ODI bowler, prior to changing his action, even as he lost pace in 2006. It is a sad realisation, but it is perhaps true that Pathan merely needed to recover from injuries and increase his strength to regain his strength, keeping in mind that his ODI performances were not on decline prior to changing his action.

With all due respect, because I enjoy reading your takes on fast bowling, I think you're drawing the wrong conclusion above when you say the change in his action has damaged his ODI career. It's incorrect because before his changed his action (pre-2007) Pathan was almost always the opening bowler. As a swing bowler there's a world of difference between bowling with the new ball and being first change as Pathan is since he's come back to the side with the changed action. As the number3/4 bowler Pathan has been since he's come back he's facing batsmen that are set in and he doesn't have the benefit of a new ball to swing. This is why we see Pathan trying to do too much with his variations/slower balls etc when he would be better served to just get the basics right first. So the comparison above is unequal, and the conclusion you draw is flawed and circumstantial at best. This is why I deliberately strayed away from using raw stats/figure in this thread, and went with more of an observation based pattern.

[bharat297]

To those people looking at stats ... remember Pathan was a rookie bowler ... no one cared about his stats, and quite frankly I still dont ... What I look for in a bowler is what skills they have. When the bowlers have that skills set, they turn around statistics. Have a look at his hat-trick against Pakistan ... I have never seen such devastating swing bowling from an Indian bowler. However, the difference is that he was swinging it very late back then ... usually it would start swinging only 3 or 4 feet from the batsman. Nowadays, if he does get swing, its reasonably early and at his pace, that gives plenty of time for batsman to adjust.

[Fontaine]

To those people looking at stats ... remember Pathan was a rookie bowler ... no one cared about his stats' date=' and quite frankly I still dont ... What I look for in a bowler is what skills they have. When the bowlers have that skills set, they turn around statistics. Have a look at his hat-trick against Pakistan ... I have never seen such devastating swing bowling from an Indian bowler. However, the difference is that he was swinging it very late back then ... usually it would start swinging only 3 or 4 feet from the batsman. Nowadays, if he does get swing, its reasonably early and at his pace, that gives plenty of time for batsman to adjust.[/quote'] Well I'm not sure. Since Pathan has come back, which series/tournaments have India played in where other bowlers have gotten a lot of swing? I can only think of the Australia tour and Pathan did get swing there as did the other bowlers, and was even reverse swinging the ball. There's no doubt he has issues with his accuracy, line and length though.

[msb1991]

With all due respect' date=' because I enjoy reading your takes on fast bowling, I think you're drawing the wrong conclusion above when you say the change in his action has damaged his ODI career.[/quote'] No offense taken. Calling it the 'wrong conclusion' is very respectful.

It's incorrect because before his changed his action (pre-2007) Pathan was almost always the opening bowler. As a swing bowler there's a world of difference between bowling with the new ball and being first change as Pathan is since he's come back to the side with the changed action. As the number3/4 bowler Pathan has been since he's come back he's facing batsmen that are set in and he doesn't have the benefit of a new ball to swing. This is why we see Pathan trying to do too much with his variations/slower balls etc when he would be better served to just get the basics right first. So the comparison above is unequal, and the conclusion you draw is flawed and circumstantial at best. This is why I deliberately strayed away from using raw stats/figure in this thread, and went with more of an observation based pattern.

Pathan did bowl sporadically with the new ball since his comeback and it is quite visible that he no longer swings the ball nearly as much as he did. Even if you only take him opening the bowling, the stats are just as damning in ODI cricket, if not more (ignoring minnows still). In 2004: 32 wickets at 29.59 In 2005: 27 wickets at 28.96 In 2006: 33 wickets at 21.81 In 2007: 2 wickets at 56.50 In 2008: 0 wickets, economy of 7.58

[Fontaine]

Pathan did bowl sporadically with the new ball since his comeback and it is quite visible that he no longer swings the ball nearly as much as he did. Even if you only take him opening the bowling, the stats are just as damning in ODI cricket, if not more (ignoring minnows still). In 2004: 32 wickets at 29.59 In 2005: 27 wickets at 28.96 In 2006: 33 wickets at 21.81 In 2007: 2 wickets at 56.50 In 2008: 0 wickets, economy of 7.58

Four matches in 2007/8 when he opened the bowling on good batting tracks? That's what you're basing it on? C'mon man, like I said you can use stats to do all kinds of funny things like this: Before his change in action, when Pathan didn't open the bowling he averaged: from 2004-2006: 2 wickets at 102.00 with an economy of 6.18. So going by those stats, Pathan is a BETTER first/second change bowler after his change in action! :hysterical: Are you expecting Pathan to swing the ball as the first/second change bowler? Because that was never his strength. He was specifically given the new ball as an ODI bowler to get it to swing in helpful conditions, just like Praveen Kumar. Also, like I said before, it's too early to draw any significant conclusions about his ability to swing the ball as nobody else has been able to swing it consistently as well in flat tracked, batting friendly series like the Kit/kat, Asia cup. However, when there WAS swing, Pathan did look very good in Australia both in the test and CB series, bowling outswingers and indippers and bowling over 135mph due to the fast tracks.

[msb1991]

Four matches in 2007/8 when he opened the bowling on good batting tracks? That's what you're basing it on? C'mon man' date=' like I said you can use stats to do all kinds of funny things like this:[/quote'] 4 absolutely shocking ones, which back up what can be visibly seen.

Are you expecting Pathan to swing the ball as the first/second change bowler? Because that was never his strength. He was specifically given the new ball as an ODI bowler to get it to swing in helpful conditions' date=' just like Praveen Kumar. Also, like I said before, it's too early to draw any significant conclusions about his ability to swing the ball as nobody else has been able to swing it consistently as well in flat tracked, batting friendly series like the Kit/kat, Asia cup.[/quote'] If he was swinging the new ball in the nets, surely he'd still be given the new ball. No one in India's history swung the new white ball as well as the early Pathan and yet you think he's been baselessly denied the new ball?

However' date=' when there WAS swing, Pathan did look very good in Australia both in the test and CB series, bowling outswingers and indippers and bowling over 135mph due to the fast tracks.[/quote'] He got the ball to swing a bit in Australia, which are conditions which help swung bowlers immensely. There is no longer the 'hoop' swing that he once had, it is more a slight wobble. He is probably now a better Test bowler in swinging conditions, but much of his early promise for becoming a world beater with his Waqar-esque swing have vanished.

[King Tendulkar]

Crapthan is a pants bowler and should be no were near the test team

[Fontaine]

4 absolutely shocking ones, which back up what can be visibly seen. If he was swinging the new ball in the nets, surely he'd still be given the new ball. No one in India's history swung the new white ball as well as the early Pathan and yet you think he's been baselessly denied the new ball?

I can't speak for what's going on in the nets, no one outside the team can really. I don't think he's been denied anything. I remember reading a direct quote from Dhoni specifying why Pathan was being bowler at number 3 (I'll try to dig it up).

He got the ball to swing a bit in Australia, which are conditions which help swung bowlers immensely. There is no longer the 'hoop' swing that he once had, it is more a slight wobble. He is probably now a better Test bowler in swinging conditions, but much of his early promise for becoming a world beater with his Waqar-esque swing have vanished.

To be honest I think there's was a lot of hype there, especially after he got the hat trick. What I will say though is that technically speaking bowling it around the high 120's gets more swing than trying to bowl it faster, so maybe that's why. That hoop swing you're referring to was when Pathan was bowling at those speeds. It does bother me to a certain extent that Pathan was able to extract that much late swing in two series (Australia and Pak) in 2004, especially in Pakistan where the conditions (apart from being over head) favored that batsmen. The only way I can account for that is that that kind of exagerrated swing is easier to get from medium pace rather than anything above 130 usually.

[Fontaine]

I did a little more digging: Here's a clip from the CB series where it was a good track in that it had a little for the batsmen as well as Bowlers. I wasn't overcast though, and Pathan got it to consistently swing late (although not the hoop swing that Msb1991 was referring to). [ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2-KDW0hb6uE]YouTube - 7th ODI Australia vs India Part 2[/ame]

[msb1991]

A bit of late swing there in the dismissal. To be honest though, I think that perhaps a problem that Pathan has is that he is not relaxed in the action. Two of the greatest swing bowlers of the past, Waqar and Wasim, were both relaxed in the bowling action but Pathan is very robotic and tense. This could affect how well the wrist imparts swing on the ball.