It’s no secret that bowling let India down in Centurion. Prasidh Krishna and Shardul Thakur were rather ineffective, putting the entire burden on Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammed Siraj. What they missed was the length. And to correct the course, India bowling coach Paras Mhambrey had an intense bowling session for India Cricket Team in Cape Town on New Year Day ahead of SA vs IND 2nd Test starting Jan 3.
Paras Mahmbrey put two yellow markers of 6 and 8 meters. And he asked the likes of Mohammed Siraj, Jasprit Bumrah and Prasidh Krishna to bowl only between those markers.
Bumrah, Siraj and Prasidh all bowled for 40-45 minutes or 6 overs spell each to Virat Kohli, KL Rahul and Shubman Gill among others.
The idea behind bowling between those 6-8m markers is to maximise the impact. The likes of Kagiso Rabada and Nandre Burger were successful because they bowled in those areas in Centurion to trouble Indian batters in the SA vs IND 1st Test.
Former India pacer Irfan Pathan said that Indian bowlers lacked sharpness in their attack. And that’s exactly what the team worked on in Cape Town on Jan 1.
“India did not have any sharpness in their bowling. The Indian bowling unit did not get the balance of attack vs defence right. When Elgar got set, even then India continued their attacking bowling as if they would get him out with one delivery,” Irfan Pathan said.
Following the disappointing loss in Centurion, former India bowling coach Bharat Arun said that he would have sat down with the bowlers individually and identify the areas to work on. Paras Mhambrey seems to have done just that.
“Either you can go wrong in your execution, or your thought process. I think if you sit down with each and every bowler and discuss whether it’s a question of execution or a question of thought process, you get the right answers. Also show them areas that they have bowled well in the match, the areas that they have troubled the batters. It is about empowering, you believe in empowering the bowlers so that they understand what is it that they have and what is it that they are lacking,” Bharat Arun told RevSports ahead of SA vs IND 2nd Test.
