Dearth of (raw) fast bowling talent in India?

[harishankar]

Over the years, we've seen so many promising fast bowlers enter the Indian team and then fade away as medium fast bowlers who rely more on line and length than pure pace.

Why do our fast bowlers always fade away like this? I remember that Zaheer Khan in his debut series bowled at 90mph and we were all excited to find a fast bowler who could take wickets.

Even somebody like Javagal Srinath, who came into the Indian side was quite pacy and got the ball to dip into the batsman at pace, early in his career. Later he slowed down quite a bit though he added variations and guile.

There are numerous examples like this in Indian cricket of talented quick bowlers who quickly disappeared or simply became medium fast line and length bowlers. Bowlers like VRV Singh who I remember was touted as one of the quickest bowlers in domestic cricket and quickly faded into oblivion in the international scene. I remember lefties like Nehra and RP Singh also bowl 90mph quite a bit at some point of time in their careers.

This loss of pace and subsequent ineffectiveness appears to be a perennial problem in Indian cricket.

Why don't we produce one quick bowler who can sustain his pace and maintain an injury-free long career? Is there something in our cricket system that encourages medium fast line and length bowling rather than pace? Or is it due entirely to the conditions in domestic cricket (hot and humid climate and slow pitches).

I only hope somebody like Shami isn't next in the list.

 

[asprin]

Shami isn't quick. His speed is decent (135 kmph to 140 kmph) at most. A bowler, to be considered as a fast bowler, should be able to bowl 145+ kmph consistently which Shami doesn't. Even today I saw Parnell bowl around 140-142 kmph, but he isn't considered to be a quickie.

Coming back to topic, a lot of interesting reasons are discussed here

 

[harishankar]

I've not followed the speed guns lately, but surely Shami bowled some 140+ possibly touching 145 kph in South Africa recently?

At any rate, his pace seems to make opposition batsmen a bit more uncomfortable than Zaheer Khan or Ishant Sharma (who does occasionally make the batsmen jump with his awkward bounce).

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And yes, where the hell is Umesh Yadav??

 

[SaiSrini]

Shami consistently bowls over 140+kmph, which according to me is quick enough to trouble batsmen in most conditions. Yadav also bowls over 140+ consistently.

I think India missed a trick by not playing Yadav in NZ. How long will we consider ODI performances when picking our test XI? Yadav has been erratic in ODI's, but in tests, he is a much better bowler because he doesn't have to worry about run leaks in tests (batsmen naturally score at a slower pace in tests than ODI's). Once Zaheer is gone which should be pretty soon considering the way he bowls right now, our attack should comprise Yadav and Shami followed by other bowlers (among the likes of Ishant, Ishwar Pandey, Bhuvi, Aaron, etc).

 

[cricket_icon]

Death of raw fast bowling talent? That is to say that raw fast bowling talent was alive in India in the first place, which it never was. India is the home of great batsman and good spinners, fast bowling just isn't something they can do and may never be bale to do.

 

[playkid12]

This has been discussed to death on these forums. It has to do with Indian pitches, India's corruption, and lack of role models. Also, to Indians, batting is a treat and bowling/fielding is a chore.

 

[C Boomer]

This has been discussed to death on these forums. It has to do with Indian pitches, India's corruption, and lack of role models. Also, to Indians, batting is a treat and bowling/fielding is a chore.

Couldn't agree more, it's not that India can't produce genuine quicks, ofcourse they can! But in my humble opinion I don't believe it is encouraged due to the type of slow wicket they regularly produce which best suits their eloquent 'wristie' batsmen and their prolific spin bowlers!

And if your want creative, inspiring poetry my friend, look no further than the entertainment section of Planet Cricket...C Boomer cricket poetry and please feel free to read away at your heart's delight !

 

[War]

Death of raw fast bowling talent? That is to say that raw fast bowling talent was alive in India in the first place, which it never was. India is the home of great batsman and good spinners, fast bowling just isn't something they can do and may never be bale to do.

Ye when i saw the thread name, i was puzzled by headline for similar reasons.

 

[harishankar]

I thought I used the word "dearth" rather than "Death".

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Ye when i saw the thread name, i was puzzled by headline for similar reasons.

See above. A moderator appears to have changed the word in the headline.

According to google definition is:

dearth
d?rTH/
noun
noun: dearth; plural noun: dearths

1.
a scarcity or lack of something.
"there is a dearth of evidence"
synonyms: lack, scarcity, shortage, shortfall, want, deficiency, insufficiency, inadequacy, paucity, sparseness, scantiness, rareness;
absence
"a dearth of trained specialists"
antonyms: surfeit

Origin
Middle English derthe (originally in the sense ?shortage and dearness of food?) (see dear, -th2).

 

[puddleduck]

The expression flogged until it's chaffed and sore seems relevant.

It's not an expression that's ever been used, but it still seems relevant in every sense.

 

[surendar]

See above. A moderator appears to have changed the word in the headline.

So @Dutch; is the culprit, he has caused the death of our fast bowlers. BCCI would love to make some deals if they come to know that!

On a serious note, most of the trending bowlers faded away picking up the injuries. Not sure why we want to blame the pitches, if we don't know the right way of mentoring to develop a player. This is not pitches fault.

Instead of sidelining in franchise squad, if we bother to send INTL quality players to play some cricket in county circuit balancing Ranji/County along with INTL tours, won't we see a better prospect in terms of raw talents? Zaheer have played county cricket, how many of our bowlers even bothered to get groomed in this way? Too many leagues, too much money & too much drain of fitness & quality when it matters most for the country.

I would blame our mentors/guides/governing bodies(whatever name you call it as) for this situation. Blaming pitch is just a lame excuse for not having a proper pace bowler in my opinion.

 

[sifter132]

I think the talent level right now is just as good as it's been in the past. The Zaheer, Irfan Pathan, Sreesanth, RP Singh, Ishant era of the mid 00s was a promising one, but there are just as many talented chaps around now. Shami, Yadav and Aaron have pace that is unusual for Indian bowlers. Bhuvi has shown the ability to bowl top class stuff. Praveen Kumar if he ever sorts himself out. Talent is there, I just think that it's really hard to consistently PERFORM as an Indian fast bowler. The pitches are always against you at home, hard to develop your skills on, but then you turn up on an overseas tour and the fans are expecting 20 wickets from the quicks. I'd love to see some of these guys take up a county contract to develop their skills, but it will never happen because IPL clashes.

 

[sami ullah khan]

Its all about who the young Indian cricketeres want to idolize when they are growing up and are contemplating the kind of cricketeres they will want to develop into. With likes of Gavaskar, Gundappa Vishwanath and Sachin bieng the dominant players over the last three decades , there is no points for guessing who they end idolizing. That is the reason India will always produce more classy batsmen than quick bowlers. The exact opposite holds true for Pakistan.

 

[asprin]

Shami, Yadav and Aaron have pace that is unusual for Indian bowlers

Come to think of it, I now realize pace was actually not an issue with quite a few Indian bowlers. The likes of Nehra, Pathan, Munaf Patel - all used to bowl 140+ kmph very early in their careers. But that changed drastically over a period of time and they all became medium pacers, probably because of suggestions pouring in from all directions and emphasis made on line and length rather than pace. Classic case of too many cooks.

 

[Dutch]

Whoops my bad! Sorry, have changed the word back. I must read the actual content before making sweeping generalisations that it will be some poor fellow who doesnt know how to spell properly. I have sent myself to the corner and will have no pudding today......