When it comes to Indian fast bowlers, there have been many perspective comments from various cricket experts who deny that the current lot is the best. Ian Bishop, former West Indian player, shares the same opinion, however adds that the change in culture to groom fast bowlers started in the early 2000s.
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“It is perhaps the best generation of talents of fast bowling India have produced. And it started a while ago,” Ian Bishop told Harsha Bhogle on Cricbuzz. “We can go back to Zaheer (Khan), RP Singh, Munaf Patel and that little cluster that came through after (Javagal) Srinath, who followed Kapil Dev. It’s great to see.
“It seemed to me from the outside that there was a deliberate attempt by India to recognise that ‘batsmen were good, but if have to win overseas, we have to get players from the MRF Pace Foundation and the NCA coming through, try to prepare pitches to encourage these faster bowlers rather than dusty turners’.
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“And now when you have three fast bowlers, sometimes four and an excellent spinner, it takes my mind back to the West Indies pace quartet before my generation – the Marshalls, the Holdings, the Garners, the Roberts — I’ll stick Colin Croft in there. There is no release point, two come out, two come on. There is no flow of runs, and there is always a threat of penetration and physical harm to a lesser extent. That is one of the things that makes this group of fast bowlers excellent.”
He further added that Jasprit Bumrah, who has quickly become the lead pacer of the Indian team in limited-overs cricket and also cemented his place in the Test setup, is a generational talent. Expressing that his first impression wasn’t quite a stand out to assure the former West Indian a long cricket journey.
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Bishop further added, “I grew up on the history of the game and coming through, I had this whole concept of a fast bowler as someone with a long flowing run; someone like Wes Hall, Sir Richard Hadlee, Denniss Lillee, the Marshalls, the Holdings, so on and so forth. And Jasprit is exactly the opposite: it is a stuttering, short run.
“Until today, I’m amazed as to where the pace comes from. And he has got a serious skill set. The way he swung the ball in the Caribbean, for example, and the way he can up his pace and still apply control to it. And then when I hear him speak about the game and break the game down, there I see a generational talent. Once he can stay fit, he is an entire package.”
You can find the entire conversation between Ian Bishop and Harsha Bhogle here. Also, what do you think about the current lot of fast bowlers in the Indian cricket team? Let us know if you agree with Bishop or no in the comments below.
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