Curious Case of Indian "Fast" Bowlers?

[ravishingravi]

Without slugging it out in the nets how can you expect them to bowl well in a match?? I somehow feel that apart from injuries some external factors are responsible for the degradation of these bowlers. One being their constant reductions in pace. When Irfan made his debut he used to bowl 140 and Srinath in one of his interviews said that he still has 5 yards up his sleeve. Rather we have seen his decrease by 10 yards. Same is with Ishant,RP. The only one to have sustained the pace to an extent is Sreesanth but he has other things to look at. I just don't understand the whole logic of reducing pace so as to improve your longevity. I mean it's ok to get a bit mean on pace like Lee did but what our bowlers do makes them completely paltry. And for this the national bowling coaches should be blamed. Ishant's coach blamed Venky publicaly and he cited the same issue. I think when these bowlers made their debuts they were playing under coaches who understood them at a personal level and hence brought out the best out of them. But on the international scene things changed for them. Sometimes too much of advice also ruined the cases for them. Next, I feel our bowlers tend to hit the gym more rather than actually bowling in the nets. I am just guessing but the perfect example for this would be Irfan(again!!). When he came in his body used to pivot completely and hence he got the swing. And his upper part used to support him for such an action.But now he can't bowl with that kind of an action because of his upper half of the body.

You make some very valid points. The BOLD I think can be attrivuted to Guru greg and his "Bio Mechanics". He became more round arm which increased the swing initiallt i.e. tour of pak., but definitely decreased the pace. I also think his grip on the ball was altered at the time. It really is a tragedy and his attitude also hasn't helped. He has been overly sensitive to criticisms.

[Fontaine]

Apart from a brief period in the West Indies where they were producing solid fast bowlers by the dozen, every team goes through the same issues. You have a promising group of 5/6 bowlers and only one or two of them really make it to the top and it takes time. Same in England, same in Australia and other countries. It would be far more realistic to expect maybe one or two of this group to take the next step. We'll just have to be patient.

[yoda]

they may be slow, they may have regressed, they may be out of control, they may be ineffective, but they have never.....

[mastana]

they may be slow' date=' they may have regressed, they may be out of control, they may be ineffective, but they have never.....[/quote'] cheated. :hatsoff:

[ravishingravi]

they may be slow' date=' they may have regressed, they may be out of control, they may be ineffective, but they have never.....[/quote'] Never say never.

[yoda]

Never say never.

Well guys like Irfan and Bala aren't going to get a chance. So they are safe. :giggle: Most of others can't bowl anything on demand in any given over, let alone on a specific ball. :hehe:

[ina_jawaan]

What a shameful catalogue of missed opportunities! Why is it that it is always fast bowlers who get "coached" out of what naturally comes to them - remember how Ray Illingworth and Peter Lever tried to get Devon Malcolm to change his action?? The guy was in his thirties!! IMHO you should not be allowed to go near a budding fast bowler unless you have yourself been an international standard quickie - and whatever happened to Venkatesh Prasad?? The guy was bigged up in the press for unearthing a new generation of Indian quickies - and where is he now?

[ravishingravi]

When will get over this hurdle ?

[hari504504]

Apart from a brief period in the West Indies where they were producing solid fast bowlers by the dozen, every team goes through the same issues.

Talk about understatement...from the 70s to the point when Walsh and Ambrose retired ..Windies had an unmatched (pbly will never be matched) assembly line of devastating quicks... Even now their fast bowling is not bad at all...

[Silva]

Our domestic structure doesn't know how to produce a good Pace bowlers. Im not saying if our dometic structure was better we would have an army full of wasim akrams, but we should be producing quality bowlers so that we wouldn't have to trust in mentaly unstable players like sreesanth or 19 year old medium pacers that have only played 9 first class matches. I think the Domestic teams should be required to hire foreign bowling coaches or something extreme like that.

[pensionplan]

Irfan-Even a stupid would make out has fallen out with dhoni so he is out

Hmm. ok. May be being the cricket_god you know something the rest of us do not. Enlighten us. Blame this over rated cricketers inability with the ball on the team management specifically the skipper and we can sweep the rest under the rug.

[shailesh68]

I have to admit I was surprised by the quality of RP Singh's bowling in England in 2007 - I hadn't seen him as a Test prospect before that. But Munaf? He looked every inch a Test bowler on debut at Mohali in 2006 with his pace' date=' (not express as had been hyped but enough to hurry good batsmen) bounce and reverse swing. Unfortunately it only took a few months for him to reduce his speed and become a useless medium pacer.[/quote'] It would not be fair to call Munaf a useless medium pacer. He bowls a very good line but yes its a mystery why his speed has reduced so drastically. But he does sometimes bowls high 135/136 which means he can still bowl fast if he wants to but he is plain lazy. A strong Capt would kick him and force him to run hard. I still feels he is our better bowler than the lot we have seen in the first test.

[pensionplan]

Irfan Pathan:- Imran Khan said that he was better than Wasim Akram was at that age. What a phenomenal talent? That ball to Gilchrist still gives me goosebumps. Loses his action, tries to become an all rounder under guru Greg and look what we are left with. I would say a season of county cricket like Zaheer to figure his game out. He is still only 25.

I saw someone in my backyard bat and I said he was better than Tendulkar at that age. No one heard about that talent since. Right about now Irfan Pathan is not even on the radar. All this guy knows is to talk big and come out a victim. And by the way Greg Chappell was gone for 4 years now and is no where on the scene. Blame others for all your ills and inabilities and that is the easiest way out. Also when was the last time this guy played a FC game and picked up a cricket ball. Let him first play a few FC games and prove his fitness and show that he can cross 130kmph and stay there consistently. Then we can talk. Till then there is not much to debate about this guy.

[jf1gp_1]

Indian bowlers are lazy . the end.

[rkt.india]

Indian bowlers are lazy . the end.

absolutely correct..like most Indians are..bowlers too are lazy...laziness is in our blood:winky:

[retterimp]

plz change title to "phhasht"

[achilles]

"Fast" Bowlers? Right!

[thongale]

Stop them going to the IPL. Develop two sets of bowlers for ODIs and tests.

[hari504504]

absolutely correct..like most Indians are..bowlers too are lazy...laziness is in our blood:winky:

Agree 100%. Otherwise no youngster drops pace from 145 to 125...we lack work ethic.

[saneindian]

The period between 2003-2007 was the dream time for Indian pcae bowling talent. Irfan, Balaji, Munaf, Sree, Ishant, PK and even VRV came along. All capable of either hitting 85 mph and/or with definite skills (swing, seam, hit the deck, reverse swing etc). Every major away series we played, we had one of the younger bowler doing well. irfan on the 2003-04 Aus tour, Balaji on 2004 Pak tour, Munaf on 2006 WI tour, Sree on 2006 SA tour, RPS on 2007 Eng tour and Ishant on 2008 Aus tour. Post 2007, we have had the likes of Gony, Tyagi, Vinay Kumar, Mithun, Dinda, Kulkarni and Pankaj Singh, none of whom have looked like a bowler ready for international cricket. Two factors have IMO being the biggest reasons :- 1. BCCI's reluctance to use MRF pace foundation (now a days our bowlers go to NCA for training and rehab, no one is allowed to fo to MRF). Do we even know who the bowling coach at NCA is? 2. IPL which has made our bowlers lazy and lose focus