John Lever with a layer of Vaseline on the ball at Chepauk in 1977-78. Wasim Akram along with his majesty and selection for over a decade from the mid-Eighties. Bruce Reid in Australia in 1991-92. Mustafizur Rahman in Bangladesh in 2015. Mohammad Amir on the 2017 Champions Trophy ultimate in 2017. Trent Boult on the World Cup semifinal in 2019. Shaheen Shah Afridi in Dubai in 2021. It’s a protracted listing with one frequent issue: India’s travails in opposition to left-arm quick bowling.
It could be price revisiting Afridi’s first spell in opposition to India… yorker-length to Rohit Sharma, a bit of bend inward and quick. For an opener taking part in his first ball, it was virtually unplayable. At the identical time, it provided a throwback to Rohit’s dismissal off Amir within the Champions Trophy ultimate 4 years in the past. On each events, he was caught within the crease.
KL Rahul was achieved in by seam motion, a supply that formed again from outdoors off-stump. For so many occasions this has occurred to Indian batsmen, when a left-arm fast discovered in-swing at tempo. Boult will pose the same menace in a digital knockout sport and loads will rely on how the Indian top-order counters him.
There’s a Joe Root masterclass on YouTube, on the artwork of negotiating left-arm quick bowlers coming from over the wicket. “Generally, I would stand on middle stump, trying to keep it quiet neutral, opening up both sides of the wicket. And maybe to a left-armer, my back foot goes slightly further across, my left foot will open up slightly and I try to just align my shoulder where the ball’s coming from,” says the England Test captain.
Dilip Vengsarkar speaks in regards to the significance of getting a front-foot set off motion whereas going through left-arm pacers from over the wicket. “I don’t think it’s a genuine problem (for India) as such, but when I was facing John Lever for the first time in 1977, I was told by Chandu Borde, who was a selector then, ‘slightly open your stance when he is bowling over the wicket to you. Then you get a clear picture. Slightly open your left shoulder’. That’s what he said, which helped me a lot. And besides of course, when you are facing fast bowlers like Wasim Akram, Mohammad Amir and Shaheen Afridi, all 140 kph-plus bowlers, you have to be extra alert and have to go on your front foot, because they can surprise you with pace also,” the previous India captain advised The Indian Express.
“You can stand still at the point of the bowler releasing the ball if you have a big stride. But you should always be ready to come on the front foot. Picking the length early is vital,” he provides.
For a batsman new to the crease, it takes a bit of time to get the ft shifting correctly. Rohit in India’s T20 World Cup opener was a living proof. Vengsarkar provides recommendation. “You do a lot of skipping before you walk out to bat and if you can open your left shoulder a little bit, that will help.”Maybe, Indian batsmen could be higher off taking part in straight, or in direction of mid-off initially somewhat than throughout the road in opposition to Boult. Vengsarkar asks them to comply with Kohli’s batting template in opposition to Afridi. “He was coming on the front foot as much as possible, which neutralised the swing. On pitches where you can come on the front foot like Kohli, and I’m sure others can do also, they would be successful (to counter the left-arm pace threat).”
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Unlike his teammates, Kohli dominated Afridi. First, it was a case of wresting the initiative, which the India captain did by strolling right down to a good-length supply and clipping it by mid-wicket for a pair. Kohli’s advance motion not solely cancelled out any LBW chance, it additionally compelled the bowler to change his size. Kohli’s six in that over was a results of the psychological higher hand he had gained over Afridi. The latter had dragged his size again a bit of however Kohli nonetheless walked into that to whip it over mid-on. A small victory for him.
Root says: “I want the bat to come down dead straight. Early on in my innings, I would try and make sure that widish mid-off is where you really want to hit it to give yourself the best chance.”
A whole lot of Indian batsmen have the tendency to play throughout the road even in opposition to the swinging new ball. Maybe, Root’s methodology might be a superb reference level in opposition to Boult.
But what must be India’s group composition in opposition to New Zealand? Vengsarkar, a former chief selector, refuses to enter the choice debate, with out having first-hand details about the group affairs: India’s preparation, web classes, and so forth.
“It’s not fair, sitting in Mumbai and commenting about the form and fitness of the players. I guess they would play the same team except maybe Hardik Pandya, considering he is not fit,” Vengsarkar observes.
