Correlation between bowling speed & wicket-taking ability: Overview of poor spin bowling by Pakistan

[xricket]

Correlation between bowling speed & wicket-taking ability: Overview of poor spin bowling by Pakistan

So, another thread, yeah. I wanted do it, may be if someone from our management is reading it and gets it through their heads, it would be worth it.

So, what went wrong with our spinners?

What do they lack, which other spinners have?

What makes Chahal & Yadav lethal?

What makes any spinner lethal?

The answer lies in basics.

1. You want to bowl slow.
2. You want to give it as much air as possible.
3. You do not want to bowl too full as if it was a full toss, or too short.

1. This gives maximum chance to ball for spin. It has to do with science. The more faster a thing is, the more probability is it would slide off and not grip the surface.

2. This helps in picking up wickets if executed perfectly. It will result in an edge as it tempts batsmen into playing big shots.

3. When that happens, you are effectively bowling a straight ball as batsman doesn't have to negate spin at all, as they get behind the line of ball to score. You ever heard of greats of game, telling to play spin while making sure to get the pitch of the ball? This is why batsmen come down the track and go to the pitch of the ball so that they don't get deceived.


Now, what is happening with our spinners?

Take shadab for an example. Those who have watched match against South Africa recently, you must have observed how south africa started took chances more and more against him and took him off his usual game and make him an ordinary bowler.

When batsmen hit him for six, he didn't slow it and started pushing the ball fast. this just killed the wicket taking option. It was around in 90s, after he got for sixes. He should bowl in the late 70s or early 80s.

Shadab started bowling shorter and flatter to stop batsmen coming down the wicket and stop them from scoring runs, but they still did. Scored plenty off him, as wickets is the only thing that slows down run rate. Not containing batsmen. Batsmen just milked him for runs and treated him like an ordinary bowler with straight deliveries.

Same thing is with Yasir. Have you seen his pace? They push the ball faster to negate scoring, but doing so they take wicket keeping option out of the scenario, which in the long run is more damaging to the team, and also not productive since wickets in hand makes it harder to contain runs.

What are your thoughts on it?

 

[Abdullah]

Agree, that's what akmal started doing to hussey In that over

 

[Titan24]

Good points made. I have have also been surprised by the fact that spinners themselves and team management didnt learn even during the 5 match series against SA and Aus that they bowl too fast to be effective.

Yasir has always been bowling with such pace even when he debuted in tests but this flatter trajectory wont get him much wickets in LOIs and that is why he isnt suited for that format.

While Shadab can bowl with flight but he needs to work hard as varying the flight and pace of the bowl is a really important weapon in spinners armoury, with his ability he can spin the bowl in most wickets if only he can access which pace to bowl on every pitch in his first few deliveries. Also as he should understand that just like the SA series batsmen attacked him because they thought he can be dangerous with his normal flight and variations and studied that he starts to bowl flatter once he is attacked a bit.

 

[xricket]

Also as he should understand that just like the SA series batsmen attacked him because they thought he can be dangerous with his normal flight and variations and studied that he starts to bowl flatter once he is attacked a bit.

This is very important.

Other teams now know Shadab can be hacked/cracked. It's similar to what they did against Abbas, as they now bat outside the crease.

If only we had someone in the management who could point out such basics to their players and then see them change the coarse of their careers and our team's performance.

I personally think if Shadab can bowl slower relentlessly, without worrying much about score, he could be much more lethal bowler. Yes, he needs to know bit of variations, like he doesn't have a flipper. Or, he doesn't use angles as much to his advantage, while bowling top spinner. A good straight ball will also help him a lot.

But for starters, he shouldn't worry about score and concentrate on bowling slow, and ensure to practice bowling for stumpings as batsmen come down the track to him. Need to sense the batsman coming down the wicket in the long run.

 

[Savak]

Variation of pace is important. A spinner must have a super fast delivery as well to keep the batsman on their toes.

 

[Titan24]

This is very important.

Other teams now know Shadab can be hacked/cracked. It's similar to what they did against Abbas, as they now bat outside the crease.

If only we had someone in the management who could point out such basics to their players and then see them change the coarse of their careers and our team's performance.

I personally think if Shadab can bowl slower relentlessly, without worrying much about score, he could be much more lethal bowler. Yes, he needs to know bit of variations, like he doesn't have a flipper. Or, he doesn't use angles as much to his advantage, while bowling top spinner. A good straight ball will also help him a lot.

But for starters, he shouldn't worry about score and concentrate on bowling slow, and ensure to practice bowling for stumpings as batsmen come down the track to him. Need to sense the batsman coming down the wicket in the long run.

Exactly. One of the reasons this team management should have been replaced more than a year ago as clearly there is no game plan or strategy in overall match or any game plan given to individual players on how to go about their roles and against individual players of the opposition.