The Indian dilemma-an expensive tear way fast bowler or a accurate medium pace surgeon ?

Ms Dhoni

"This win is good, but we need to make a decision if we want quick bowlers or if we want good bowlers even if they are not quick. We have been backing too many quick bowlers who haven't been bowling well," 

You will laugh at ms Dhoni.

 That the team reached the semi-finals of the world cup was mainly due to the bowlers picking up 77 wickets from a maximum of 80 wickets.

Dhoni however was referring to Umesh Yadav’s performance in particular.

After Umesh Yadav’s performance in the match against Bangaldesh, Dhoni does have a point.

After his success in the world cup he was richly praised for having learnt and improved. However after recent performance it seems he is not able to adapt.

And he is just an example. Due to the fact that India played most of their matches abroad in 2014 and a wonderful world cup in terms of bowling performance their overall figures are good.

However the underlying fact is in the past 18 months no bowler apart from Mohammed Shami has been able to combine brisk speed with accuracy. Bhuvneshwar Kumar has accuracy but isn’t threatening after the new ball though he is improving. Aaron has speed but no accuracy.

fast and effective

 Let us take six Indian pacers who are more or less in the frame now and see their speed.

Umesh Yadav and Varun Aaron are ultra fast.

Ishant Sharma and Mohammed Shami are fast

Mohit Sharma and Dhawal Kulakarni are brisk

Though Bhuvneshwar Kumar has increased his speed he is clearly the slowest of the lot.

Umesh Yadav had a wonderful world cup and an agreeable IPL. He was the leading wicket taker in the world cup with 18 wickets.

However, in the series against Bangladesh he has gone for over 7.58 runs per over. That is clearly too expensive for a strike bowler.

Varun Aaron has played 5 ODIs and he was too expensive going at above 7 runs per over. It was telling that little known Harshal Patel pipped him to be Royal Challengers Bangalore’s Indian bowler. This after he was touted to lead the attack for his IPL franchise.

Ishant Sharma had a poor IPL after returning from injury.

Shami is injured but has been a vital part of the Indian line up.

That vibe about Mohit Sharma is no longer present. After being the dark horse on the World Cup, he has fared badly in the IPL and the current tour.

It is too early to say anything about Dhawal Kulkarni. Bhuvneshwar Kumar has improved by leaps and bounds and has always been a quiet achiever.

MS Dhoni is always blamed with managing his bowling resources badly. There may be some truth in it. However, we see that the bowlers are really inconsistent and are not able to string more than two good games on trot.

As Mcgrath said, raw pace in India is an unnatural phenomenon. Indians are used to seeing other countries have 140 plus bowlers. Ours was a line and length tradition. The conditions also don’t help or suit a fast bowler to become one in India.

So naturally all of us felt excited when we could say that we have two or three 145kmph bowlers in our country who could hit the deck, bounce out Australians and keep the batsmen honest.. Raw pace is exciting but without control it means nothing.

Varun Aaron’s first class record wouldn’t have got him into any team. It was his deemed potential and his unnatural speed that gave him that opportunity

Experts said to give them time to grow and develop.

So they were given. But the conclusion is unclear.

I come back to what ms Dhoni said. India needs to choose

Fast or medium. Tear away or surgeons.

However there are a few problems. In the subcontinent the conditions are such that bowlers focus more on line, length and swing than pace. So a dhawal kularni or a Bhuvneshwar Kumar will be more handy here. In England, South Africa and Australia one needs that extra pace to trouble the batsmen. Umesh yadav and Shami’s success in the world cup was testimony to that.

So one option maybe to create a crop of bowlers for oversees and for subcontinent. (This is never going to happen.)

 The other is continue to invest in the faster bowlers and set up an ideal combination of the faster and medium fast bowlers.

One can accept if a fast bowler leaks a few runs but picks wickets but the two ultra fast bowlers have not been able to do that.

 Umesh Yadav has to be given more chances and time to develop. A wonderful World Cup performance should not be undermined.

15-20 years back a medium fast pace bowler would be able to contribute well if he was smart and canny enough.

Nowadays it is almost imperative to have that X-factor present in terms of speed as the batsmen have become much adept, skilled and armed with heavier bats. Not to mention the current ODI rules(which have changed) and the pitch which is increasingly becoming batsmen-friendly.

This inconsistency was becoming the case in the last few years. The world cup camouflaged it. However Dhoni’s words may have been said in frustration but it does put Indian cricket in dilemma they had postponed.

The team has reached crossroads as the combination of bowling attack reflects the level of intent and the plan of the team.

This is something that carefully needs to be thought of and will be known when the Sri Lankan tour starts.

New Zealand and the art of being consistently brash

Oh I don’t know. I guess brash is too… brash a word to describe their brand of cricket but what to do?  Aggressive, intimidating, active, dynamic etc have already been used. (Not to forget reckless).

 My analysis is pertaining only to one-day internationals and to test matches to some extent.

However sometimes you do get the feeling that they are being reckless. They are taking the so called brand of positive cricket too far. For purists it almost seems rude.

Sometimes. Almost

McCullum.

McCullum's savage assault on Steven Finn during world cup

If any one else attempted to play like McCullum( except say, Gayle) they wouldn’t last 10 balls.

In the world cup he lasted 19 balls per match. Its true.

 Just imagine what would happen if he could take a bit more time and try to play at least say 20 overs of an ODI. The bowlers would delegate their role to bowling machines.

Even in the field he goes all out searching for wickets. So much so that his lead bowler bowls out by the 30^th over and his part-timers are learning the art of death bowling.

This form of expansive cricket isn’t very consistent. When you play like this there are going to be many one-sided games. Suddenly the tactical genius of Brendan seems clever by half as can be seen in their match against England recently.

It has rarely happened. The black caps have taken McCullums’s attitude to heart. They talk about being positive. And they walk the talk consistently. So much so that people don’t mind that odd one-sided game knowing that when they watch a game in which the black caps play there is something happening every moment.

That’s why they have become the second-best team for every non- New Zealander (mostly).

How is it that they are so consistent with a brand of cricket whose outcome is so inconsistent?

How are they playing cricket in such a ‘rude’ fashion and succeeding more often than not?

Well each player knows his role for a start. It helps when you have the bowlers to back your strategy. It helps even more when all the players are in form.

However the ‘positive’ mindset has different reference here. It doesn’t always necessarily mean aggressive. It means an inhibited style of play. Some players like McCullum and Ronchi play with gay abandon while others like Williamson and Taylor are able to play their natural risk-free cricket ad going for their shots only when they can do so. There is no pressure on any of them to play in a particular way unless of course the situation demands it.

Boult and Southee are given the freedom to ball attacking lengths irrespective of the runs they concede. This freedom is allowing them to play with a clear mindset.

The cohesion and the bond of the team we see know makes it impossible to believe that the team was in the process of falling apart 3 years ago.

There has been so much discussion on the Talyor-McCullum-Hesson(the coach) saga that I don’t think I need to discuss it.(yet again)

Another thing about this team is that they completely back their players. It is harder to get into this team than to get out. There has been stability. This security has not led to complacency but increased motivation. The bench strength ( especially in case of the bowlers) is promising.

All the players know their roles.

For example

McCullum needs to murder the new ball.

Guptill needs to caress it

Williamson’s the anchor

Ross Taylor needs to consolidate

Southee needs to pick wickets

Boult needs to pick wickets

Well… you get the idea.

the wicket-taking combo?

New Zealand 5-10 years back was a steady if unspectacular side. Although having promising players they weren’t able to consistently play well and win those big moments in the game.

Today we see that they accept that there will be days when their plans look more like an attempt to increase their TRP. 

There will be days when they will be given a dose of their own medicine.

There will be days when their attacking cricket doesn’t work.

But they will be attacking and agressive anyway.

They are prepared to lose to win, if that makes any sense.

But the great thing is that they are playing this style of cricket with ease. The losses are just minor blips on the way. There is definitely going to be a stage when it becomes hard to play with such freedom.

There are going to times when the team realizes that it is one thing to play this brand of cricket with in-form players  and absolutely another when the players lack confidence and are not at their best.

I just hope the black caps can postpone that period as long as possible and make this attitude contagious to other teams as well.

 Their style has hit us like a cool winter breeze in the summer heat.

 It has come at a time when the general feeling was that most teams did not get the incentive to go for win in test matches. That most teams went through a period in ODIs were they let the game drift so much that new rules had to be implemented to force the teams to attack and make things happen all the time.

At a time when the financial viability of test matches in countries except in Australia and England was in doubt the New Zealand team has changed the mindset of the fans and players alike.

 This has been aptly phrased by an advertisement for ongoing the NZ tour of ENG

The men who invented the game VS the men who are reinventing it.

When one is 

1.  Restructuring or reinventing the style of the play

2. Trying to attract the crowds back to the longer formats, 

Maybe brash is the way to go about it.

Just so long it is consistently brash.

BHUVI 2.0- From a talented bowler to an evolved bowler

"I love playing with him and I always wanted to play with him on a big stage. Today my wish was fulfilled. He is my idol and I have learnt a lot from him. Every time I play with him, I learn something and today was no different,"

I will give you five chances to guess who bhuvneshwar kumar’s cricketing idol is?

I can even give you a hint; he is a indian swing bowler.

No?

Praveen Kumar. Yes that’s his role model. I bet you wouldn’t have guessed that in a thousand years.

Why p.kumar you think. Well both play for the same club in meerut for a start. Also having the same surname helps. Just kidding.

Bhuvneshwar kumar’s first rose to fame for being the first bowler to dismiss sachin tendulkar for a duck in ranji trophy. I am not sure if he is still the only one with that record.

When bhuvneshawer kumar first came to the international scene one had a familiar feeling about him.

 A genuine swing bowler with a middling pace.

 Rp singh, irfan pathan and Praveen kumar came in strongly before losing steam due to loss of form, injury and mercurial temperament (respectively to a certain extent).

What a debut bhuvneshwar kumar had- he picked up a wicket with the first ball of his international career.

In that marathon innings where chris gayle scored 175 and RCB 250+ bhuvneshwar playing for pune that time went for only 26 runs in his four overs.

Evolved Bhuvi

Every match, every series he played he was doing a decent if not spectacular job.

He was slowly rising and improving till the inevitable happened-he got injured. Many feared that he would become a part of the group of bowler who came onto the big stage, showed promise and faded into oblivion.

The fear was turning to reality when we saw him being prematurely grafted into the playing 11 in the last test of the recent series against Australia.

It was painful to see him bowl at 115 kmph, 10-15 kmph lower than usual.

Even more painful to see him being carted around by Ryan Harris.

Before coming into the tour he was clearly a rising hero. He won the man of the series in England for gritty batting and street smart bowling. However there were concerns.

He was a surgeon with a new ball. Give the pitch a little spice and he will work you over. However he couldn’t bowl well in dry conditions. He couldn’t bowl consistently in the middle periods. His pace was fodder for big, strong batsmen with big, strong bats, especially in the death overs. He lacked variations.

Coming to Australia it was felt that he would suffer the most due to lack of lateral swing prevalent there, his main strength.

Injury has not deterred him. On the contrary he has come back stronger and has become more versatile and adaptive, at least in the limited overs format as was evident from the IPL.

It is worth noting Ravi Shastri’s favourite comment about Bhuvi.

“he is a steady bowler who plays within his limitations”

Well, I guess he has just removed those limitations.

He has increased his pace, can bowl yorkers at will and has a good bouncer to keep the batsmen honest. This just increases the threat of his swinging deliveries.

The Yorker. All of us talk about bowling it but almost nobody actually bowls it.

Almost.(ahem-malinga and starc)

 It is not present in the Indian book of bowling. Mohammed Shami is one bowler in recent times who is able to bowl the yorker.

However Bhuvi has made that art as a hobby bowling them at will as was evident in the IPL.

It is almost as if he says, “You big, strong batsmen with your big strong bats do whatever you want. I am going to bowl in between your big, strong legs and big, strong bats and break the middle of the middle stump.”  

And he walks his talk.

In midst of all the hype of Boult and Steyn, Bhuvi has quietly emerged as the highest wicket taker of his franchise- the Sunrisers Hyderabad.

He has become more consistent with the new ball as well giving very few bad balls.

It is telling to see his success over other ‘fast-er’  Indian bowlers like Varun Aaron and Umesh Yadav who though had the odd good spell, were inconsistent and wayward.

He had even piped Ishant Sharma as the main bowler in his IPL side. 

Bhuvneshwar kumar has clearly come to this level with more hard work than talent.

We can see his dedication, his focus and his passion even though he is a comparatively restrained player.

Bowls, gets a wicket, performs the customary high-fives and then goes back to his run up.

No fuss, no muss.

For me, in the last 1 year or so all the Indian bowlers have definitely become better but it is Bhuvi who has evolved to the next level.

He may not get the pace of his Indian bowling mates but still is outperforming them.

He is that kind of a player who everyone wishes does well.

Hopefully his graph keeps going up and then one day Praveen Kumar will say,” Bhuvi is my role model.”

A bit premature but I did say hopefully.

His second stint with India awaits him.

Can he carry on his present form?

I hope so.