Rajib Roars and the Art of Reverse Swing

[Zunaid]

Rajib Roars and the Art of Reverse Swing

Asaad Wahid

Asaad Wahid hearkens back to the day he saw greatness in the making when the enigmatic Shahadat Hossain Rajib delivered some of the finest examples of reverse swing. Rajib has all the prototypical characteristics of a genuinely quick bowler: everything from aggression, to facial gestures, to his stare-downs of opposing batsmen.

Read article »

We just published an article by al Furqaan. After all the doom and despair from the India series Rajib's re-emergence has been wonderful to see.

Let's chat ...

[Eshen]

Excellent read!

Not sure about Asad's claim that reverse swing works better in hot weather though. Wasim and Waqar used reverse swing well in England. In 2005 Ashes, English bowlers also used reverse swing well against Aussies.

IMO, we may see reverse swing used more on subcontinental pitches because the ball gets old faster on hard pitches here (same reason we see spinners used more often here).

[beshideshi]

Fantastic article,tells almost everything one might want to know about the quickee that is Shahadat Hossain.
A couple of facts about reverse swing: the red kookaburra ball reverses around 40-45 overs in sub continent conditions, where the white one used in limited overs usually reverses around 30 over mark.
In order to get the ball to reverse, the ball must stay absolutely dry. If you notice, you would see teams in sub continent dont spit on the ball nowadays to ensure that the ball remains dry.
Unlike traditional swing, reverse swings helps quicker bowlers, as optimum swing occurs when a bowler reaches 90mph. But again, the more time in the air the ball has, the more it will swing.

[Eshen]

Rajib's reverse swing is more subtle though, he does not get the ball to shape away like Pakistanis do, which in fact can be deceiving.

[Zeeshan]

This is one of the best panegyric I've read in a long time. Well done.

[kalpurush]

Great read indeed. Asaad bhai for BC writer's award!

[al Furqaan]

Originally Posted by kalpurush
Great read indeed. Asaad bhai for BC writer's award!

zeeshan's shakespear-giri was top-notch creativity though...creativity unsurpassed.

[al Furqaan]

Originally Posted by Eshen
Excellent read!

Not sure about Asad's claim that reverse swing works better in hot weather though. Wasim and Waqar used reverse swing well in England. In 2005 Ashes, English bowlers also used reverse swing well against Aussies.

IMO, we may see reverse swing used more on subcontinental pitches because the ball gets old faster on hard pitches here (same reason we see spinners used more often here).

i read the hot thingy somewhere once...can't remember where.

[ahaque]

superb read

[Neel Here]

just a couple of additional points.

Originally Posted by beshideshi
In order to get the ball to reverse, the ball must stay absolutely dry. If you notice, you would see teams in sub continent dont spit on the ball nowadays to ensure that the ball remains dry.

they do spit on the ball, but only on one side. the other side is kept roughed up and the shiny side is polished with spit and sweat so that it gets heavier. reverse swing happens because the centre of gravity shifts away from the centre of the ball towards the shiny side. that's why when the ball is delivered the ball moves towards the shiny side.

Originally Posted by al Furqaan
i read the hot thingy somewhere once...can't remember where.

you are correct. because in most situations, hot = dry.

[beshideshi]

^ well have a look at this video. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qAp5Y4YbYP0 Tells you almost everything you may want to know about reverse swing, described by the great Wasim himself. And he mentioned that when Saqlain Mushtaq first came into the team, he spat on the ball. And him and waqar warned Saqlain to never do that, otherwise Ws will kill him

[Beamer]

And, I will write an article like this ( though of not such high quality ) in five years about Rubel, if I last that long in BC..

[Zunaid]

Originally Posted by Beamer
And, I will write an article like this ( though of not such high quality ) in five years about Rubel, if I last that long in BC..

You know you can write. You know you can all write.

The spirit of BC is the blood that flows through our fans' veins. Our red blood corpuscles look like a 70th over cricket ball.

Now I do urge all to re-energize and send us articles we can publish. There is so much rich content in these here forums - why not spend an extra hour or so and send them our way.

Just PM me and we will get to it in a jiffy.

We used to have a huge number of fan initiated articles every month - I would like to see more.

Just look here: Articles

[One World]

Surprisingly he kept every word I Whitchurch demanded of

I 'flippin believed in you - I died in a ditch for you. And now, you need to fulfill your promises. Either keep it in the slot, or break some jaws for me. You know how England will go the bash if they need to, so if you're good enough, get your retaliation in first. We need an enforcer, and between you and me, Masri is just too [obscenity removed] nice, so you're the man. And I don't need to see grunts, I need to see bruises, or even better retired hurts. It's time to deliver, and for you to show me you are The Man.

[Neel Here]

Originally Posted by beshideshi
^ well have a look at this video. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qAp5Y4YbYP0 Tells you almost everything you may want to know about reverse swing, described by the great Wasim himself. And he mentioned that when Saqlain Mushtaq first came into the team, he spat on the ball. And him and waqar warned Saqlain to never do that, otherwise Ws will kill him

previously players used to shine both sides of the ball with spit, that's what wasim is saying here. of course he will not get into the details. watch any match in subcontinent involving Ind or Pak, you will find that the players keep on working on one side of the ball, with spit & sweat.

[magic boy]

good article on Shahadat Rajib...He deserves

thanx to Asaad Bhai

[Nafi]

Originally Posted by Neel Here
previously players used to shine both sides of the ball with spit, that's what wasim is saying here. of course he will not get into the details. watch any match in subcontinent involving Ind or Pak, you will find that the players keep on working on one side of the ball, with spit & sweat.

Agreed with Neel

[WarWolf]

Thanks Asaad for the wonderful piece.

[beshideshi]

Originally Posted by Neel Here
previously players used to shine both sides of the ball with spit, that's what wasim is saying here. of course he will not get into the details. watch any match in subcontinent involving Ind or Pak, you will find that the players keep on working on one side of the ball, with spit & sweat.

Apologies, after some more reading it seems like they do spit on the ball to make one side heavier. It was the small bit on the video that probably gave me a false impression for some reason.

[BD-Shardul]

Great article al Furqan bhai.

[aniksh1]

Apparently he said "It is good that such a good batsman is injured from my delivery." regarding Dravid. I think that is an immature statement to make...

[bangla-red]

Well, he was more saying that "It was a good ball because it managed to injure a batsman as good as Dravid".

[Purbasha T]

Well, obviously he wasn't happy that it broke Dravid's jaw; he was happy that he got a batsman of Dravid's stature into such a big tangle.

[IanW]

Its a dirty secret, but great fast bowlers like hurting batsmen.

Breaking The Wall was important for Rajib, and for Bangladeshi cricket ; it means if their quicks go the bash, we have someone who is known to be able to crack heads.

And thats important.

[Zunaid]

^ Amen.