England v India - It is pace and not movement that always troubles a quality batsman

Relying on skills rather than conditions is more important

During the ongoing Test series between England and India, while discussing about swing bowling, ex-England captain and now a renowned cricket commentator, Nasser Hussain quoted arguments from a NASA scientist to suggest that swing has nothing to do with the changes in the atmosphere but swing has everything to do with the condition of the ball and seam position. 

Many of his fellow colleagues in the commentary box were not satisfied with Nasser’s explanation but Nasser was not incorrect.

Wasim Akram was once asked about his ability to swing the ball even on bone dry tracks and the great Pakistani replied calmly with a smile, “Everything comes from the wrist”. Throughout their careers as the best fast bowlers in the world, Imran Khan, Wasim Akram and Waqar Younis used to swing the ball at will on any tracks – be it a placid wicket or rank-turners and the anti-pace-bowling conditions hardly had an impact over their abilities to swing the ball.

They relied more on skill rather than tracks and conditions and if you are technically well-equipped then neither moving the ball nor bouncing it on the flattest of tracks is ever a difficult task.

Cloud cover and heavy atmosphere do help the ball to move, but if you are not technically at home and skill enough then such conditions are of no use.

Pace is more difficult to counter than swing

On the 29th July 2011 Harsha Bhogle tweeted, “with sreesanth and praveen kumar the tradition of swing bowling is alive. it is movement not pace that troubles quality batsman.”

Speed has always been a factor of disinterest for the very best batsman in the business. Yes, swing is troublesome but it can be mastered whereas it’s never an easy task to stand firm against those cannon balls which travels at 100 mph on a regular basis. And if there is movement of the ball along with speed, then it becomes vicious for the batsmen.

Yesterday, Rahul Dravid and V.V.S Laxman showed the world how swing bowling can be countered by getting beside the ball. You can play the moving ball by getting behind as well but by getting beside the ball it seems more comfortable. The English did move the ball, but they didn’t generate enough pace to unsettle either Dravid or Laxman. 

Again, in the first morning at Trent Bridge, Sreesanth had electrified atmosphere not just by pitching the ball up and swinging it, but also generated lively pace which unsettled the English and yesterday, Stuart Broad’s magical spell not only had movement but pace as well which curtailed India’s innings.

At Nagpur, last year, Dale Steyn scripted a mayhem to dent India not with movement, but with sheer pace against which even Tendulkar had no clue. At Karachi in 1982-83, Imran Khan on a dead track put shiver down the Indian batsmen’s spine not with movement but horrendous pace. The famous West Indies pace quadrate’s pace killed even the best batsmen while Wasim and Waqar’s pace along with late-swing unsettled the likes of Brian Lara, Steve Waugh and co.

It has always been pace and not movement which always unsettled the batsmen.

Thank You

Faisal Caesar