Total Pageviews

Friday 20 January 2012

Keys to playing spin bowling....

I had predicted a 1-0 win for Pakistan in my preview and who knows, this scoreline might remain the same at the end of this series. But then England's shortcomings in the subcontinent have once again come to the fore. And England and Andy Flower would be foolish if they haven't realized by now that England have a serious problem in the subcontinent. Since they are the No. 1 team now, one can expect them to possess decent bowlers. More importantly, bowlers with heart. And we saw that in this test. I will have to say that after the 1st day's play I was expecting Pakistan to make 400 comfortably . But England's seamers have surprised me a bit with their heart and quality on these dead subcontinent pitches. The problem for England lies with their batting. I am not saying that England have a bad batting line up, they don't. But the thing is that when you come to the subcontinent, you have to make a few minor adjustments to your technique. Many great batsmen have come and had massive failures in the subcontinent. Its one thing to score heavily at home and in Australia where the conditions aren't alien to England's batsmen but its a completely different thing to play quality spin, with men around the bat in the subcontinent. Its just the same thing as when subcontinental batsmen go to England or Australia, they struggle for a while. All it takes is some getting used to, learning from experience and understanding the finer nuances of batting (these finer nuances will only make them overall better batsmen). Like, take Jacques Kallis for example, whenever he plays offspin in the subcontinent he always takes an off stump guard and this allows him to play with the spin on the legside and this forces the bowler to shift his line outside the off stump . Now what it does is that it allows Kallis to leave balls outside his eyeline as he knows that he has his stumps covered and thus he can't get bowled. Being a bit of a batsman myself (albeit not a very good one), I am gonna try and become a batting coach for England and gonna lay down a few things which overseas' batsmen need to do when they come down to the subcontinent................


1. Play with soft hands: The first basic in playing spin bowling is to play with soft hands. All great batsmen of spin bowling have this one thing in common. I saw Eoin Morgan nick one off Abdul Rehman today and I thought he did this mistake. He pushed at it. In the subcontinent, you have to allow the ball to come to you and play with soft hands .

2. Watch the ball and play it late: This is one basic which is helpful in playing all sorts of bowling, whether swing or spin. England's batsmen were pushing at the ball a bit, especially in the 1st innings. Like Kevin Pietersen in the 1st innings. He planted the foot forward and pushed at it. You can't do that here in the subcontinent, KP....

3. Use your feet: England batsmen are more prone to playing the sweep shot . This is due to the fact that they don't play spin bowling a lot back home. As a result they haven't quite perfected their footwork against spin and are scared of getting stumped. Let me remind you all that "Coming down the track" isn't the only way of using one's feet. One can go deep in the crease and turn a reasonable ball into a short one . Positive footwork often destroys the confidence of even the best of spinners.

4. Be positive in your attitude: England got stuck whenever the spinners came on. If you defend too many balls , you only end up digging your own grave. They allowed Pakistan to bring the fielders close in and built pressure for themselves. The great Aussie side were so successful in all conditions because their batsmen wanted to dominate the spinners the moment they came onto bowl. Don't allow them to settle is the mantra.

5. Play with a cool and calm head: England seem to lose their cool whenever they see the spinners coming onto bowl. They panic. You can never make the correct judgment if your mind is clouded. Playing with a cool head is the best way of taking pressure off you. Even the opposition don't feel comfortable if they see you batting calmly .

6. Rotate the strike: The best way to play a bowler is by watching from the nonstriker's end. One doesn't need to hit boundaries every over. Simple rotation of the strike helps a batsmen in more ways then one. It will keep the scoreboard moving, it will take the pressure off you and it it won't allow the bowler to settle.

4 comments:

  1. LoL I think those coaches know all this. And I think spin bowlers also know that batsmen know this. But than it becomes the mind game. The bowlers put so much pressure on you that you break. You forget for a moment some little things (like play with soft hands, play it late, etc).

    ReplyDelete
  2. thanks man for reading it....your feedback is welcome...

    ReplyDelete
  3. Definitely raised some good points here! I'm a cricket coach too and when coaching against spin it's these things I try to get across. I have to say though, England aren't normally this bad at playing spin. Morgan and Bell are probably our best players of it but they failed this Test. Hopefully they'll buck up their ideas in the next Test for a better game!

    ReplyDelete
  4. for me, KP and morgan are eng's best players of spin..but the problem is that these 2 are good attacking players of spin....in the subcontinent, u have to be a good defensive player of spin too....

    ReplyDelete