Friday, February 9, 2007

Should Sreesanth be Given the New Bowl to Open Bowling for India?

Sreesanth is a young medium pace bowler of Indian cricket team. He has spent a good series in South Africa especially in the test series. However, he can not live up to the demand of the fans in ODI cricket. Record says that he is very much economical in ODI cricket. His bowling average in ODI seems not to be well comparing with his test bowling average.

I think Sreesanth is given the new ball to open the innings as his bowling speed is much better than that of other players currently playing for India. So, if he is given the new ball and asked to bowl as much speed as he can then it will be very much effective. As India needs a pace bowler for the squad, so he can be best used in this way. It is true that India has two excellent spin bowlers but sometimes, runs and wickets in the first 15 overs become crucial and change the situation. So, to check the runs and take wickets India needs to follow some tricks. For example, one of the opening bowlers can check the runs to create pressure on the batsmen and the other opening bowler will concentrate on taking wickets using the impatience of the batsmen. However, if this plan does not work well in a match then the captain should go for using spin bowlers in order to check runs and the pace bowlers can be used later on in a number of spells.

If India go for four bowler strategy then the captain has to use occasional bowlers and I think Rahul Dravid should have some tricks to use the occasional bowlers as well. Suppose if the pacer can take off three wickets in the first 15 overs then the captain can think about using occasional bowler in one side and the spinners in other side so that the batsman can not bat comfortably. However, if the pace bowlers concede too many runs in the first 15 overs then the captain should not use occasional bowler immediately rather he should use two specialist spinners at the same time so that the runs can be checked from the both hand. For using occasional bowler, the captain should have some additional strategy. For example, if an off spinner comes in one hand then it is better to use a leg spinner or left arm spinner or slow medium pacer instead of using another off spinner in other hand.

Ahead of the ICC Cricket World Cup Cricket 2007, India should have some other effective plans as they do not have a strong bowling side.

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