Injuries holding back Indian fast bowlers - a lame excuse?

Ishant Sharma

We normally come across many tales of things being cursed, of something ruining it in entirety, during our childhood, and, as we grow, those thoughts are driven away by more of a realistic approach – as of an optimistic – wherein we seek for glory beyond any shortcomings. One such story still makes me wonder about when the “unimaginable” will happen. The tale of Indian cricket’s bowling attack has so far been a disheartening one with no concrete signs of satisfying picture ahead, yet.

The major concern for the lack of sting in the bowling attack is primarily due to the way cricket enthusiasts and beginners go about the sport from the childhood. It gets embedded in our heads that the one with the bat in his hand is the driver of the game. The same can be seen even in the past and current scenario, wherein we were, and still are, abundant and blessed with some of the most promising and quality run-makers. The same story, though, can’t be applied to the other half of the game.

Once the bowlers reach the topmost level of cricket, injury is the most bottled out reason for the wearing of most of them, be it in the past or present. That’s a very lame answer to a very grave question that is around for years now. It’s not that we lack the talent or the facilities to filter and nurture young quickies. It’s just, I guess, the methodology that differs.

Cricket Australia’s methodology

Here, I would like to put some light on Cricket Australia that has developed and thrived upon robust techniques to find and guide budding bowlers across the country. During the descending cricket phases of Glenn McGrath, Jason Gillespie, Brett Lee and others who ruled the roost during the 2000s, there was a big question across the cricket community on how would the nation cope post their retirement. The network of strong domestic cricket across the country has always helped the coach staff to spot the national team aspirants. The major step was to improve their skills and hone them to play at international level with utmost efficiency. There came a masterstroke from the Australian cricket management. The basic drill was to make all the bowling aspirants realise about the ability and reaps of bowling fast.

Bowlers were made to bowl against the speedometers competing with each other in the training drills to make them understand the value of bowling at higher speeds. We have always learnt through every lesson in our life that “the faster you are, the better you stand”. The technical aspects of swing and seam are reinforced with pace by bowling on green hard surfaces maintained across most of the grounds in Australia. The same pattern of practice was carried along all domestic levels across the country to ensure the “problem of plenty”.

Way forward

For many years now, what we have seen with the Indian bowling is that the talent has always been there, but the consistency is a big worry. Many have been portrayed as culprits and villains of unacceptable losses (read: Ashish Nehra) to many being spoilt by coaches (read: Irfan Pathan) to the many more being victims of injuries (read: Munaf Patel). Crickets pundits have for long preached that “fast bowling is fun”, which I guess needs to be injected into our cricket culture.

This can only be achieved by efficient administration. Being the most powerful cricket body in the world today and comprising the most modern infrastructure and lucrative domestic structure, performance and scrutiny platforms are no longer the woes for India. The only loose chord, it seems so, is in the nurturing of the talent once it is spotted. With all due respect to our yesteryear cricketers and the current ones, a very cynical mentality has been observed for some time: swing compromises for pace and that line and length can only be achieved if one doesn’t strive for pace. This amendment has been followed in our system not because of lack of strength or the ability to bowl at high speeds but due to unfavorable bowling conditions in the backyard. India has many cricket grounds, but hardly any of them with green spongy 22-yard decks to excite and encourage quick bowlers.

Instead, they have to toil for long spells in domestic seasons forcing them to give up on pace and rely on seam movements for claiming scalps; hence, the process becomes more gritty and grumpy instead of being an exciting and riveting stuff for the bowlers.

Slight modifications in current practices can uplift the long raging battle of the below par Indian bowling attacks. Hopefully, we will be able to break the jinx of endorsing a lackluster pace attack at international level by grooming talented lads into feisty record-setting bowling legends.