Our pace bowling

[shuziburo]

There was a time, especially during the NZ whitewash, when it looked like our pace bowling finally turned a corner. But, it has regressed significantly in recent days. Mash is still our best pacer, but his past injuries make him unavailable in tests. Nazmul is our craftiest pacer, but it almost definitely looks like he will forever be the stepson.

Pace bowling is not only about speed. It also involves using clever variations in speed, line, length, bounce, etc. One area where our pacers clearly could improve is using the crease. Similar balls bowled from the edge of the crease and from close to the stamps look very different to the batsman. I wish that our bowlers read the CI article How Southee outsmarted India. Our batsmen don't have Southree's height, but they can learn to do the other little things.

[shuziburo]

I am pretty sure that I know what ATMR is going to say about our pace bowling.

[jeesh]

To be honest the weakest part of our cricket. In the last 10-12 years we have had absolutely nothing to write about except Mashrafe. Some of our existing bowlers like Rubel, Shafiul, Nazmul are decent, but nowhere close to what we require to be successful. The pipeline doesnt excite too much either. We can convince ourselves Abul Hasan is a real talent, and he can bowl at good pace. But the brutal truth is Abul Hasan would be just an average bowler in Sri Lanka or India. There are dozens of Abul Hasans in Sri Lanka who can bowl faster with greater skill.

Physical attributes are clearly not on our side. Most of our guys dont have the height, muscle, stamina. So the focus should be on skill, accuracy and clever bowling. We dont see too much of that either. Think Kulasekara or Praveen Kumar or Munaf Patel. These guys are not exactly quick but they are disciplined, skillful and they think and bowl. This training must be done at high performance academy, pace academy rather than depending on national team bowling coach solely.

Unless we act now and work with a long term plan we risk the possiblity of being left behind. Even Zimbabwe is developing good pacers. Afghanistan has a couple of pacers who bowl over 90mph. Lot of work to do!

[zinatf]

To be honest we need a genuine pace foundation.....or else a fast bowling coach for our Academy...otherwise the chances of seeing good pacers in the pipeline are little to null.

[shams91]

Step 1: Make a bowling friendly pitch that aides Pace Bowlers!

Step 2: If all the time we have batting pitch, then ofcourse we will say our pace bowlers suck.

[shuziburo]

Our pacers don't do too well on pace-friendly pitches, either. We need to reinvent our pace bowling strategy.

[jeesh]

Very well said. We often tend to think we ll get more reward if we play 3 seamers in Australia/South Africa/England. But truth is we are much better of playing spinners. Our pace bowlers really cannot extract anything out of pace friendly pitches either. Like you say we need to a take a fresh look at our bowling-how we find talent, nurture them, train them etc.

[M.H.Rubel]

Originally Posted by shuziburo
Our pacers don't do too well on pace-friendly pitches, either. We need to reinvent our pace bowling strategy.

That is a very valid question Suja Vai. Our pacers are so poor that they can not utilize the seaming conditions.
We need to produce quality pace friendy wickets in F C matches. Last year in F C matches we had seamer friendly wickets, still pacers did not do well there.

[Tiger444]

Well we got Mash who thankfully is still bowling well despite having all those injuries he sustained over his career. What's really hurt us IMO has been the fact that Rasel has always been injury prone and not the same anymore and Shahadat being an absolute bust. With those 3, we could've had a settled and experienced pace attack. Instead we are still at a stage where we are still building a pace attack. The positive has been that Rubel has improved his bowling and is proving that he belongs at this level and Shafiul, while he disappoints more than Rubel, is also improving his bowling. I think in a few years we'll see Rubel and Shafiul being more dependable pacers. Abul is still very young and will need a few more years before he starts making an impact. Outside of the national team, we got Kamrul Islam Rabbi and Taskin Ahmed who look like real prospects. So we have the pieces now but it'll take time before they start firing.

[jeesh]

Rasel, Shahadat-both lack intelligence. Rasel could have easily become a useful limited over bowler-i thought he could play a Vaas like role for us. But its strange someone who bowls at 115-120 kph doesnt have any control. He also doesnt think or anticipate what the batsman will do. I wont even start about Shahadat.

Rubel is the only other decent prospect imo. Too bad the injury has thwarted his progress. Has the natural aggression and knack of picking wickets-love the way he sends stumps flying. Needs to strengthen his upper body and work on his pace a little. When he started he could bowl in excess of 140. He's more threatening that way. Nazmul is one of the more intelligent bowlers. Knows his limitations and tries to do his best within those. Shafiul will never succeed as long as he keeps thinking he is Brett Lee. Mashrafe, Nazmul, Rubel make a good bowling attack. Now the challenge is to get them fit and play together.

[al Furqaan]

Rasel when he was playing was actually a very crafty bowler, so disagree with you Jeesh. He totally outperformed Mashrafe in the 2007 world cup and the series immediately after that. He lost form at the beginning of 2008, and with his lack of pace that was deadly to his prospects.

Rubel, like most of our bowlers hasn't developed anything on his pace...then again most international bowlers don't. I'm not sure if his pace has dropped, but he has been quite decent in ODIs of late. He's bowled with far better than control before and than anyone else we have except maybe Mash.

Our Test bowling stocks are very poor, and I'd like to see what Abul Hasan, Taskin Ahmed, and some others can manage in the upcoming NCL season. Al Amin Hossain did very well last season as well and he's got pace around the 135-140 k mark.

[Gowza]

al amin, abu jayed, alauddin babu, taskin and abul we'll be watching.

[Zeeshan]

scks....

[jeesh]

MRF appointed McGrath as successor to Lillee. Now thats progress

[Gowza]

sajidul was a terrific prospect, should have been persisted with and should have got assistance through injuries. emon ahmed was meant to be good as well but developed into nothing. hopefully kamrul, abu, taskin, abul, babu and al amin develop well.

rasel was a good limited overs bowler but he was just never the same after his injury. shahadat was decent when he was younger but again he developed into nothing, simliar issue with india, whose pace bowlers often show promise but once in the national team they break apart.

[Rifat]

out of all the pacers, Shahadat Hossain still holds that record in tests for most 5 wicket hauls by any Bangladeshi pacemen, which clearly indicates our strength in that department in Tests, or maybe because We do not play tests that often also has to do with it.

The only few rare instances where we bundle out opposition for less than 400 is when we get pitches that offer something for spinners.

[Rifat]

Originally Posted by jeesh
To be honest the weakest part of our cricket. In the last 10-12 years we have had absolutely nothing to write about except Mashrafe. Some of our existing bowlers like Rubel, Shafiul, Nazmul are decent, but nowhere close to what we require to be successful. The pipeline doesnt excite too much either. We can convince ourselves Abul Hasan is a real talent, and he can bowl at good pace. But the brutal truth is Abul Hasan would be just an average bowler in Sri Lanka or India. There are dozens of Abul Hasans in Sri Lanka who can bowl faster with greater skill.

Physical attributes are clearly not on our side. Most of our guys dont have the height, muscle, stamina. So the focus should be on skill, accuracy and clever bowling. We dont see too much of that either. Think Kulasekara or Praveen Kumar or Munaf Patel. These guys are not exactly quick but they are disciplined, skillful and they think and bowl. This training must be done at high performance academy, pace academy rather than depending on national team bowling coach solely.

Unless we act now and work with a long term plan we risk the possiblity of being left behind. Even Zimbabwe is developing good pacers. Afghanistan has a couple of pacers who bowl over 90mph. Lot of work to do!

Jeesh,

I really enjoyed reading your articles/posts, as I learned a lot about cricket through reading them. please do not stop writing as They are very accurate, insightful and genuine

[shuziburo]

Originally Posted by Zeeshan
scks....

I wonder where this came from...

[zinatf]

Originally Posted by shuziburo
I wonder where this came from...

ahh! What an observation

[BrianLara7]

Our pace bowling is the most mediocre in the world without Mashrafe. Mashrafe is the only bowler who is even close to world class. There has never been a top team (top 6) without a half decent pace attack. Even India has couple of decent ones even though they are nowhere near being great (Zaheer, Praveen)

[shuziburo]

Originally Posted by BrianLara7
Our pace bowling is the most mediocre in the world without Mashrafe. Mashrafe is the only bowler who is even close to world class. There has never been a top team (top 6) without a half decent pace attack. Even India has couple of decent ones even though they are nowhere near being great (Zaheer, Praveen)

India has a world-class spin attack in the '60s and '70s (Bedi, Prasanna, Chandrashekhar, Venkatraghavan, Doshi). But, until Kapil Dev arrived, India was not a force to reckon with.

I had high hopes for Rubel, but who knows if he was another flash in the pan.

[BrianLara7]

Originally Posted by shuziburo
India has a world-class spin attack in the '60s and '70s (Bedi, Prasanna, Chandrashekhar, Venkatraghavan, Doshi). But, until Kapil Dev arrived, India was not a force to reckon with.

I had high hopes for Rubel, but who knows if he was another flash in the pan.

You are right, and another reason Indians never succeeded outside subcontinent is their lack of bowlers specially fast bowlers. Even if one or two could bowl fast, they just weren't good enough. Likes of zaheer/ srinath had few good seasons but overall nowhere near great figures. Two best teams in cricket also unsurprisingly had arguably two best pace bowlers ever (Malcolm Marshall and Glenn Mcgrath) with support staff like Holding, Gillespie, Garner, Brett lee.

[jeesh]

Originally Posted by Rifat
Jeesh,

I really enjoyed reading your articles/posts, as I learned a lot about cricket through reading them. please do not stop writing as They are very accurate, insightful and genuine

Thank you so much for your kind feedback

[jeesh]

Originally Posted by BrianLara7
You are right, and another reason Indians never succeeded outside subcontinent is their lack of bowlers specially fast bowlers. Even if one or two could bowl fast, they just weren't good enough. Likes of zaheer/ srinath had few good seasons but overall nowhere near great figures. Two best teams in cricket also unsurprisingly had arguably two best pace bowlers ever (Malcolm Marshall and Glenn Mcgrath) with support staff like Holding, Gillespie, Garner, Brett lee.

Now it has changed. They started MRF Pace Academy in 1987 now its paying dividends. They are still no where close to Pakistan (Who effortlessly produce pace bowlers), but still have unearthed very un-Indian like fast bowlers in recent times.

[Maysun]

Honestly thought Rasel would be in the setup for a long time in the limited overs. Sad he faded away.