Going short in the middle overs: for Cummins, it's a risk worth taking
How Cummins uses it could significantly affect Australia's fortunes against Pakistan on the pitch that offers true bounce
Karthik Krishnaswamy
19-Oct-2023
There are good short balls and bad short balls, but sometimes their goodness or badness is an entirely post-facto construct. Take two balls Pat Cummins bowled, back-to-back, to Pathum Nissanka in Lucknow. Both were banged into roughly the same area of the pitch, and both climbed to just over shoulder height and finished outside off stump.
Nissanka pulled the first one for four, picking the length in a flash and dispatching the ball well in front of square.
The line of the second short ball may have been ever so slightly closer to Nissanka's body, cramping him ever so slightly for room, or Nissanka may have taken ever so slightly longer to get into position for the pull. In any case, he failed to get on top of the bounce, and hit the ball in the air, within range of David Warner haring to his left from deep square-leg.
Similar balls, different outcomes, and in each case there was only so much the bowler was in control of. Bowling fast is an intensely physical act, bowling fast and short even more so, and how quickly the ball reaches the batter and at what height and line are hugely dependent on the vagaries of the pitch and how the ball reacts off it.
Bowling short is, in essence, an act of faith.
The variance of outcome between those two short balls from Cummins is also typical of that length. It's a length that's likely to go for runs, but it's also likelier than most other lengths to bring wickets.
As first change, Cummins does a job that he isn't exactly a natural at. He isn't Lockie Ferguson, a white-ball specialist who trains year-round to bowl middle-overs lengths in white-ball cricket. But it's a role Cummins has to perform out of necessity, and a role that's vital for Australia at this World Cup, where they only have one frontline spinner with whom he can share the middle-overs wicket-taking burden.
It's also a role that's heavily dependent on what has come before. Cummins hasn't had a great World Cup, so far, in terms of the situations he's begun bowling in. There were no new-ball wickets against either South Africa or Sri Lanka, and while Australia picked up three in their opening game against India, they had only posted 199 batting first.
Pakistan and Bengaluru are likely to present Cummins with another stern middle-overs test. The Chinnaswamy Stadium is traditionally one of the fastest-scoring grounds in India, with pitches that offer true bounce and an outfield that's among the smallest in the country. The straight boundaries are particularly short, so teams often tend to try and make batters hit square.
The short ball, then, is likely to be a key component of the middle-overs battle. How Cummins uses it could significantly affect Australia's fortunes.
Karthik Krishnaswamy is an assistant editor at ESPNcricinfo