Get the basics right: Prasanna to bowlers

NEW DELHI: The series against Australia is only three matches old — a T20 and two ODIs — but Indian bowlers have already conceded 864 runs in 120 overs. This equates to a run-rate of 7.2 runs an over, eye-popping even in this age of slam-bang cricket. While Indian skipper MS Dhoni lauded his batsmen's stunning chase of 360 in Jaipur on Wednesday night, in the same breath, he came down hard on his bowling attack. "We need to improve in bowling. If you attempt a yorker and it becomes a low full toss, it's fine, but if it becomes a waist-high full toss, then the margin is too much. It's one area we are looking to improve."

What Dhoni was pointing out was the inconsistency of the seamers and spinners alike. The medium-pacers — Ishant Sharma, Vinay Kumar and Bhuvneshwar Kumar — maintain a stock length between 6 and 8 metres on the pitch. In the good old days, this area — termed as just short of good length — was considered ideal as it didn't provide the batsmen the opportunity to play off the back or the front foot. That has changed dramatically in the last couple of the years, fuelled by the rise of T20. The batsmen are prepared to take risks by jumping out of the crease or pushing right back. And the bowling doesn't seem to have adapted to this.

"A good length area is open to interpretation. It changes on the conditions of the track as well as batsmen's position at the crease. A bowler needs to learn to adapt and change his length back or forward accordingly. To an observer like me, from the cluster that builds around a good length area, it seems that Indian bowlers are not changing their lengths enough," Delhi Daredevils mentor and former MRF Pace Academy coach TA Sekar told TOI on Thursday.

Ishant is the biggest culprit in this department. For one who is supposed to be the leader of the attack, the Delhi pacer has been spraying it all around. "Indian bowlers' inefficiency at bowling yorkers also seems surprising. There is no secret to bowling a perfect yorker — practice makes perfect. Day in and day out you have to practice hitting the block-hole in the nets," he added.

Even the spin spearhead of the team, R Ashwin is finding it difficult to weave his magic. Former India off-spinner Erapalli Prasanna believes that unnecessary experimentation is affecting Ashwin. "You need to be able to deceive batsmen with your flight and bowling. Stopping in your bowling stride, trying to pre-empt what the batsmen is thinking is no deception. The break in the flow of his action is affecting his control over line and length," Prasanna said.

So, should the selectors look at other options? Both Sekar and Prasanna believe that the bowlers need to be given a proper run but under 'correct guidance.' "Just dropping bowlers after a couple of poor performances is not the answer. The coaches and the team management need to tell Ashwin to get back to his basics. When he gets his stock ball right that's when he has the most success. The first task is to get the basics right with all the bowlers," Prasanna added.

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Shweta Pandey

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