[betaar]

I know we are basking in the glory of leveling the series but one thing is increasingly growing to be a matter of great concern before the WC……you guessed it, FAST BOWLING.

Our fast bowling against NZ was good, good enough to pick up wickets at the right time to win matches. There haven’t been too many cases where our fast bowlers, bar Mash’s early days, won matches for us and I hoped that was about to change due to the inclusion of Ian Pont. So to see the improvement in that department in NZ series was heart warming.

After seeing the improvement, here in BC, some of us (as usual) jumped to the conclusion and credited Ian Pont. But there were some cautiously optimists, like me, suggested to wait and see if it was really his influence or coaching that did the trick. After seeing 2 matches in this series, I must say our fast bowling is back to its usual self. One could argue that one of our better bowlers, Rubel Hussain, is sitting out to make room for Mash, so what do you expect? But what about Shafiul?

It’s true that Mash is definitely not 100%, physically and technically, but why can’t Shafiul deliver? Mash was injured from the first match against NZ and obviously was out of practice, so he can be excused for not learning anything or not delivering whatever he may have learnt from Pont. But I just fail to understand why Shafiul shows no sign of improvement. Have you also seen the way Shahadat bowled against the Afghans?

Please be clear, by improvement I am not speaking of pace, or having new arsenal in bowling armory; I am speaking of doing the basic right on a more consistent basis. At this level after being trained by so many coaches these bowlers should be able to land the ball on the seam and on the right line and length at will, but have we seen that happening?

I know the pitches of Bangladesh are slow which is exactly why line and length is so important. Just look at the way Mpofu bowled. He is not that tall or built and bowled way slower than Shafiul, but he was able to extract so much movement and bounce because of his seam position and landing it where it needed to be. Even his 125k speed seems unplayable at times because of the extra speed or movement the ball gathers after it lands on the seam.

If Ian Pont is not able to understand these simple things (which I am sure a coach of his caliber does) and more importantly inject these simple concepts in the mind of our young bowlers then why bother with him. But if it’s the bowlers who are failing to execute what they learn, then kick them out….use the ones that can.

I have heard and read so many things about Pont adding new tricks such as butterfly effect and all that, so far the only thing I see is the butterfly in the big belly of our fast bowler.