Variation is key to success for spinners, says Raju
Indian veteran urges bowlers to stick to basics
Sports Reporter
As the cricket now is more of a batsmans game, the bowlers show their penchant to restrict them somehow. The tendency doesnt go augurs well sometimes as former Indian spinner Venkatapathy Raju, who started conducting a specialised camp with the Bangladesh young and senior spinners, stressed on to stick to the basics to earn considerable success.
On the first day of his class, Raju, the former left arm spinner made it clear, he wants the bowlers try to do the ball talking instead of bowling just quicker and quicker in a bid to earn some respite from the batsmens backlash.
Raju will spend six days here with 15 spinners of HP squad and eight more spinners of the national team. From what he has seen on the first day of his specialized coaching class, he saw the bowlers have the skill but they have some lack of variations, an important component to be successful in all format of the cricket.
Skill is already there, we are asking them to be a little more relaxed and have more variations, he said. If you see, most of them forget to get the revolutions on the ball, they just try to bowl quicker and quicker, and finish and go. We want them to still stick to the same basics where you get the revolution of the ball.
First few days we are working with the younger boys and then we will have video analysis with the senior boys as well. We basically want them to have more variations without changing their actions.
While the Asian bowlers have success in the sub-continent pitch, they couldnt master it to the outside of the sub-continent.
According to Raju, variations would be more important if a sub-continent bowler want to thrive outside the Asia.
I think the difference is basically the mind. We are born and brought up on turning tracks because here the wicket helps you a bit, he opined. The same thing when you go outside you cant expect the ball that much. Outside there will be little turn. We are so into playing here we get carried away. So I think line and length and variation is very important when you play outside.
In the limited over cricket, few bowlers could dare to give flight as they fear for the worst. Raju admitted the game has been changed and turned to batsman, making it a power game but he believed still variations could do much if a bowler could intelligently use it.
Now its more of a power game. You cant expect them to have a silly point for nothing. They should be good to know what field they want. You should be able to bowl according to that. There was a time when we didnt have a fielder behind the square of wicket, that was for a bad ball, but now we see so many different things. On the whole, bowler has to be really comfortable with the captain. The variations and the trajectory has to be good. Because of T20 you are bowling quicker and trying to forget the loop. No matter what kind of a delivery you bowl, the revolution has to be good.
Now the most difficult part for any bowler is you are playing T20, 50-over-game and then the Test matches. There are lots of restrictions on the field in T20s and 50 overs. We were very lucky back then, we only had four in the circle so 230 to 240 was a good score before but now 300 is not enough.
Raju didnt single out anyones name particularly but he identified four good leg-spinners who he thought could make a difference.
What we have seen today there are three or four good leg spinners, we told them that once the competition starts the pressure is more. Competition is very high at age level but when you play elite then patience is really important.
