Fast men on slow tracks

Past masters: Jason Gillespie and Michael Kasprowicz © Getty Images Enlarge

Third ball after tea on the third day of the tour game against the Board President's XI, Stuart Clark bent his back and pitched one back of a length. Aakash Chopra quickly got into position to fend it off but the ball zipped, almost like a shooter, into his back pad. Chopra walked back shaking his head at his misfortune. The next two balls, to S Badrinath, pitched on the same spot, lifted and had the batsman jumping. That half over summed up the nature of Indian pitches.

The challenges of bowling in this part of the world are well known: there isn't usually as much bounce on offer as there is overseas, what bounce there is is often variable, and there isn't much carry through to the wicketkeeper - or much movement off the pitch or through the air either.

Patience and pace
How are fast bowlers to approach India then? Brett Lee, Jason Gillespie and Michael Kasprowicz, who have done their share of bowling in the country, with varying degrees of success, all speak of the importance of the two Ps: persistence and patience.

Gillespie, a veteran at the art of bowling long spells, who is now playing in the ICL, says, "You just need to be prepared to bowl a lot of overs to get your wickets. Unless you are a genuine, genuine fast bowler, who's going to blast anyone out with pace, it is better to go out there, bowl good line, good length, set appropriate fields and be very patient."

Getting the batsman to play is vital. "I always bowled reasonably straight," Gillespie says. "But the key is to never give him a length where he can drive through the line, like a half-volley."

Speaking of genuine fast bowlers, Australia have Brett Lee, perhaps the best of his breed in the world at the moment. Last summer in Australia, Lee steamed in tirelessly, bowled at a consistently breathtaking speed, and was the Man of the Series for his 24 wickets at a little over 22 per. Australian pitches are slower these days than they used to be, but Lee managed to get both pace and bounce. Will he be looking to approach the series in India the same way? "Pace still plays a major role," Lee agrees. "The thing I've done in the last couple of years is pitched it right and built pressure and the wickets have come through."

Fast bowling has been crucial in Australia's recent campaigns in India. During the 2000-01 series, which Australia lost, and three and a half years later, when Adam Gilchrist led Australia past the final frontier with a 2-1 victory, the quick bowlers left a strong imprint, especially Kasprowicz and Gillespie, who bowled long spells, setting things up for Glenn McGrath and Shane Warne.

Containment is key
Kasprowicz, who is the only bowler to have featured in Australia's last three series in India, says the one reason Australia won in 2004 was because they went against the grain tactically. "As a bowler you are attacking the batsman's weakness normally. What we did last time was bowl to his strengths and set smart fields." The plan was worked out by the fast bowlers with John Buchanan, the coach, on the plane to India. As the tour went along the strategy was refined but the basics remained constant throughout.

The Australians set in-out fields with a couple of sweepers - deep square leg, deep point or third man - to cut off the boundaries, working on the traditional weakness of subcontinental batsmen, their tendency to rely on boundaries, rather than on rotating the strike, to score. "If you are trying to build pressure you have to minimise the run-rate," Gillespie says. "If you can have a strategically placed fielder, like down at deep square leg, and you bowl straight on middle and leg stump and if he clips it to the leg side he's only going to get one run. That adds pressure to score boundaries and creates opportunities for you to get wickets."

The reverse swing thing
The use of the wearing ball is important. In India the ball tends to lose its shine in less time than it takes to play a regulation-time football match. That makes the use of variations, and reverse swing, especially important.

Pace and guile: Brett Lee and Stuart Clark will bring different approaches to bear in India © AFP Enlarge

Manoj Prabhakar, the former India medium-pace bowler, to whom swing came naturally, thinks that unless the Australians tweak their bowling actions they will not be able to produce the sort of reverse swing that is necessary to be effective on Indian wickets. "You can see Wasim Akram or the other Pakistan fast bowlers, like Shoaib Akhtar, and you will notice when they bowled reverse swing it was with a round-arm action and not the usual upright wrist and straight arm." Of the current Australian line-up, Prabhakar thinks only Mitchell Johnson has that sort of action.

"Your length is the customary back-of-a-length but you should hit the ball hard to get late swing off the pitch", Prabhakar says. He brings up the example of South Africa's Dale Steyn, who managed to produce reverse swing by landing the ball hard on the seam on the dry, grassless pitches South Africa's series in India earlier this year were played on.

Trial and error
Gillespie thinks bowlers need to be open to experimenting. "I've always learned from my bowling coaches that you don't always need to hold the seam upright," he says. "Try to hold the ball in different ways and then see how it behaves. This can definitely surprise the batsman and play on his mind."

Both Gillespie and Kasprowicz believe Stuart Clark, with his smart changes of pace, will play a big role in the series. "Clark is outstanding with his variations, can move the ball both ways, and has a great ability to pick up crucial wickets" Kasprowicz says.

Gillespie's formula would be to bowl Lee in short spells, so he can be more effective, and have Clark and Johnson bowl longer. "Lee can always come back and surprise the batsman with his bounce, while Clark can control things with his accuracy and surprise the batsman from time to time with his movement as well as bounce."