How hard is pace bowling?

[Jadukor]

As a fan of the Bangladesh team, my expectation from pacers are pretty low. I always expect the spinners to do most of the damage. I don't expect the Pacers to bowl at express speeds or knock over oppositions with swinging yorkers but having said that (and having seen Irish & Afghan bowlers) how hard is it to actually bowl according to your limitations and according to a game plan against the opposition?

Why can't we:
i) try to bowl line and length and keep it generally near the off and middle stump?
ii) Use the short pitched delivery sparingly and as a surprise weapon?
iii) Develop a variety of slower deliveries to fool the batsman?
iv) Learn to bowl at least 5-6 yorkers per innings?
v) Learn to anticipate what the batsman is trying to do?
vi) Realize that short pitch bowling is impossible to set a field to as it allows batsman to play shots both side of the wicket.
vii) Realize that as the ball gets older and the field gets spread out a fuller length approach outside the off stump becomes easier to set a field to.

I think all these things can be applied by any bowling unit regardless of how tall, fast or gifted they are. Good batsman would still hit you for sixes but at least then we can say we tried our best.

So my question to all is what is it that makes it so hard for our boys to do pace bowling?

[Naimul_Hd]

I think Ian will be the best person to answer all those questions

[jeesh]

Jadukor all those things require two things which our bowlers dont possess-intelligence and common sense! Shafiul for example bowled 3-4 short balls, thinking he can frighten Imran Nazir.

[Jadukor]

Originally Posted by jeesh
Jadukor all those things require two things which our bowlers dont possess-intelligence and common sense! Shafiul for example bowled 3-4 short balls, thinking he can frighten Imran Nazir.

The biggest disappointment for me has been Shafiul. This guy came into the team with a lot of promise three years ago. Unfortunately for us he is STILL the bowler he was three years ago with no apparent development in skill level

[SS]

Originally Posted by Jadukor
The biggest disappointment for me has been Shafiul. This guy came into the team with a lot of promise three years ago. Unfortunately for us he is STILL the bowler he was three years ago with no apparent development in skill level

exactly what was he doing..short slow balls to world class batsmen ...wayward line and length...what they do in the nets, practices I just don't get it....i understand it's t20 and he will bound to get it but bowling sub standard deliveries (3 balls atleast in one over) is totally unacceptable...why can't the bowling coach figure that out and what was he doing all this time (3 years!!!) and still making same mistakes

On the other hand, there was not that much from the pitch but our bowlers really need to practice in all sorts of pitches...the more they play the better but to learn about basics they have to be responsible for it

[Naimul_Hd]

3 years ago Shafiul was a better bowler than today's Shafiul.

[Maysun]

Originally Posted by Jadukor
The biggest disappointment for me has been Shafiul. This guy came into the team with a lot of promise three years ago. Unfortunately for us he is STILL the bowler he was three years ago with no apparent development in skill level

Shafiul was a far better bowler when he was new to the scene

[Maysun]

Naimul bhai, we said the same thing at the same time

[Naimul_Hd]

Originally Posted by maysun
Naimul bhai, we said the same thing at the same time

Haha, great minds think alike

[al Furqaan]

Have you never held a cherry in your hand? Its harder than it looks on TV. Otherwise everyone would at least be a Shoaib Akhtar if not a Wasim Akram.

[MohammedC]

Fast bowling is hard work. Its not easy to control the ball when you want to bowl as fast as you can. It takes a lot of practice.

[Jadukor]

Originally Posted by al Furqaan
Have you never held a cherry in your hand? Its harder than it looks on TV. Otherwise everyone would at least be a Shoaib Akhtar if not a Wasim Akram.

Yes i have, you seemed to be good at putting words into people's mouth so the important question is have you read my opening post?

[Zunaid]

Originally Posted by Jadukor
Yes i have, you seemed to be good at putting words into people's mouth so the important question is have you read my opening post?

No but the knee jerketh mightily.

[Wakidul]

Originally Posted by al Furqaan
Have you never held a cherry in your hand? Its harder than it looks on TV. Otherwise everyone would at least be a Shoaib Akhtar if not a Wasim Akram.

Yeah difficult obviously, but thats because we dont even play a quarter of the amount of cricket our players play. U would expect them to atleast pick up some knowledge from the coaches, with all that amount of practice. If we trained as much as them im sure some us would be able to bowl maybe not as fast as these boys but with application of atleast a few more basics. Line and length, trying to bowl yorkers, occasional bouncer etc.

I think we are also so one dimensional, need to have variety in our bowling attack. Look at the differnce between shakib and razzak, nto much. Then look at afridi and ajmal.

[Gowza]

Having been a fast bowler during my school days the 3 skills that I found most useful were line and length, the Yorker variation and the bouncer. The first of those skills was the most useful, didn't matter how fast I bowled, if I had good line and length I took wickets and kept it tight. Fortunately I was blessed with natural pace which was a big weapon for me but there were times during injury in which I was forced to bowl at almost half pace and during those times I was still able to take 4/5 wicket hauls due to good line and length. Swing is also a great friend to us fast bowlers, due to my pace I often got late swing lucky me, but line and length was the #1 reason for success.

[BengaliPagol]

from the looks of it our pace bowlers do not work on improving their game

[mufi_02]

Pace bowling is very hard. I started off trying to be a pace bowler. I would practice in the nets for hours and hours, sometimes only at empty stumps. There were 3-4 of us who would bowl in tandem and sometimes I would get a bowling machine and compare myself. I would bowl 2-3 good deliveries, 1 amazing one and the 2 bad deliveries. Batsmen would just block the good ones and take advantage of the bad one. It was so frustrating that only one wayward delivery would ruin the whole over and I would get nervous.

Pace bowling is about aggression and confidence. You have to be confident about bowling yorkers, because if you are hesitant, it will become a full toss.

[Imteaz]

Originally Posted by Jadukor
i) try to bowl line and length and keep it generally near the off and middle stump?
ii) Use the short pitched delivery sparingly and as a surprise weapon?
iii) Develop a variety of slower deliveries to fool the batsman?
iv) Learn to bowl at least 5-6 yorkers per innings?
v) Learn to anticipate what the batsman is trying to do?
vi) Realize that short pitch bowling is impossible to set a field to as it allows batsman to play shots both side of the wicket.
vii) Realize that as the ball gets older and the field gets spread out a fuller length approach outside the off stump becomes easier to set a field to.

i) try to bowl line and length and keep it generally near the off and middle stump?
Maintaining line and length is the primary job of any bowler. Keeping the delivery in off & middle is not actually line & length. It differs according to batsman, condition (wicket+weather+outfield) and fielding placing

Example: If you keep your line in off stamp against Shaurav Ganguly, you will never get his wicket in sub continent wicket. He was the master of off stamp (just an example, I am not sure how good is Shaurav in T20 format)

Point: Need a proper guide from senior pacer, captain or coach who will suggest the bowler where to bowl. As an experienced one you have to decide it according to situation. Bowler will execute it and YOU MUST NEED THE ABILITY TO EXECUTE unfortunately our bowlers do not have any of above.

ii) Use the short pitched delivery sparingly and as a surprise weapon?
Not always. Short ball can only bowl when you have either proper condition (like England, South Africa or Australia or Newzealand) or you have enough pace. You must deliver a short ball with 85 mph+. Otherwise any international batter will play it comfortably. And of course, according to batsman. Even Shoib Akhtar or Brett Lee would think twice to bowl a short ball to batter like Lara, Kallis or inform Tendulkar. Though Shoaib hit Lara once in English condition but definitely Lara was a master of short ball.

iii) Develop a variety of slower deliveries to fool the batsman?
Long way after you pass a certain time in certain level. Because it needs to read batters mind what can he do in next ball.

iv) Learn to bowl at least 5-6 yorkers per innings?
Not a very wise decision. Because it always have risk to become a full toss or half volley when you bowl Yorker. Depends on situation again.

v) Learn to anticipate what the batsman is trying to do?
Thinking capability which will work when your mind is stable and capable of thinking. Usually during the match this is the toughest thing to do. Captain or senior team mates can help the bowler to do so.

vi) Realize that short pitch bowling is impossible to set a field to as it allows batsman to play shots both side of the wicket.
Please see Answer (ii)

vii) Realize that as the ball gets older and the field gets spread out a fuller length approach outside the off stump becomes easier to set a field to.
Please read the 1^st answer. Because pacer has select the line & length according to fielding & situation.

Finally there are some point for BD pacers

1. Our pacers do not maintain their fitness during holiday. As a sports professional it is must. It is their personal duty to maintain.

2. Bangladeshi thinktank cannot ever suggest a bowler properly. In last match where Shakib was playing short ball comfortably, our pacer should realize it wouldn’t work against Pakistani batter. For Mashrafee and Shafiul (as he played enough number of international matches) it was their duty to realize. For Abul Hasan, BD think tank should suggest him to change strategy.

3. Conventional bowling style will never work in modern day cricket. In T20 it is 100% truth. You must have to change / adjust / improvise your bowling strategy even after every delivery if needed.

Long post. Hope you wont lose your temper.

[AsifTheManRahman]

Pace bowling is very difficult, yes, but bauldami is inexcusable.

[shuziburo]

Pace bowling is hard, but our pacers don't think so. Except for Mash (and perhaps Rubel), I have not seen any BD pacers to put in the work it requires.

How many BD pacers can put a quarter on the pitch and land the ball on it 80% of the time? Probably only Mash (and maybe Nazmul).

[AsifTheManRahman]

I remember reading either a Bhorer Kagoj or Prothom Alo (probably the latter) article back in the post ICC trophy win days, when guys like Shnto used to spearhead our pace attack. Utpl Shubhr was in his typical romantic mood and a chunk of the article went somewhat like this:

"(Coach) pitch er upore 500 takar ekti note boshiye bowlerder bollen, 'Tomra jodi ei note er upore ball felte paro, tahole puro 500 takatai tomader'. Kintu taka noy, Bangladesher pacer der chokh jeno keboli wicketer dike. Stump ke nishana baniye kromagoto net e ghaam jhoriye chollen Shnto-(insert name of other gobet here) ra.

Practice sheshe ei shangbadik coach ke darun ekti net session er jonno obhinondon janate gele coach ke besh bishonno dekha gelo. Coach er ei hotash chitter karon jigesh korle bollen, 'Oi 500 takar note er upore ball felte parle khali 500 keno, oderke puro 1000 takai diye ditam nijer pocket theke. Cheyechilam oder bar bar pitcher upore eki jaygay ball felar obbhash ta hok, kintu koi, keu to parlo na'."

I head-banged so hard that day that I had a slight lump on my forehead for a couple of weeks.

[simon]

^^haha, Asif bhai,thanks for sharing this.
I used to dislike your negative posts & you calling our players sissy, kintu ekhon amar shikkhya hoya gesey.
apni apnar obhiggota theke eshob likhten, asholey apni thik i bolten.

[Dilscoop]

^ You disliked his post because he called our player sissy? That's a prime example of sissy right there.

On topic: Considering a gazillion Indians all over the world can't bowl fast proves how hard it is. Batsmen have it easy. They've always had it easy. It doesn't help either when the game itself only glamorizes the "offense."

[Jadukor]

There is no doubt about fast bowlers being a rarity in the subcontinent besides Pakistan. As I mentioned in my opening post, I am not asking why can't our bowlers bowl at express speeds like Steyn.

I am asking
why can't our unit bowl like medium pacers are supposed to? At the moment our line and length and attitude is like a super fast bowler whereas in reality we are bowling medium pace. Even Mushfiq stands almost at the edge of the inner circle keeping to somebody like Abul! What are we missing here?

The rest of the world has had many successful bowlers who weren't super fast but got the job done for the team (e.g Tom Moody, Kulasekara, Praveen kumar, Akib Javed, Pollock, Vaas, Flemming etc) with their medium pace and variety

[cricbook]

how hard to be....if kumra jodi lau hote chai?????????? (for bd pacer).....pacer der onek rules mante hoi....bd mane? khbar excercise tik moto korte hoi kore??? akhon milk bad dia jodi mata khaya chole, ya hard to be a real pacer.....tarpor aro koto ki....etc....../.