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Is this the Golden Age for fast bowling?

Manee

Cricketer Of The Year
Looks like we are at the dawn of a new age for fast bowling, we some young guns from SA, Australia, England, Pakistan, India ripping it up.

Australia have about 6 fast bowlers who can run through batting line ups.

SA has found some young guns as well.

England is finding good young speed merchants.

India as well all of a sudden has found some quality young quick's.

This is what happens when pitches start offering something for the quick's, it's great too see almost all nations producing fast bowlers, I think we are at the dawn of a new age of bowling. After decades of flat tracks, it's great to see the bowlers starting to come into their own.
Fast bowling is good at the moment. However, I don't think we have reached a golden age. A golden age manifests as loads of bowlers in an era who perform consistently well. I don't think this will occur for the amount of bowlers that it did in the 1990s (look at Broad's career average or Ishant Sharma's, or Morne Morkel's). I don't think you can really place this down to pitches either. Zaheer Khan shows that you can succeed in any conditions with genuine consistency and to even suggest that he is currently tapping into all time great bowling each time is to be quite simply premature.

Pakistan without Amir and Asif hardly are world beaters with their pace attack. Gul and Cheema are good but Cheema is getting on a bit and Gul is very inconsistent. Junaid and Wahab also are plagued with inconsistency. India have Ishant Sharma who has flattered to deceive, Praveen who has played a handful of Tests and Yadav who is wayward and I think will struggle over a long term career. South Africa and Australia have debut bowlers do well but I think Cummins, who spent a lot of time in the 130s kph and has played pretty much no FC cricket will not be much of a Test bowler. I have reservations that Philander will not perform much outside South Africa and I think De Lange is good but no more so than Morne Morkel who has averaged 30 in Test cricket. Pattinson, on the other hand, I think is good.

And of course, England do have some quality quick bowlers. Not enough for a golden age on their own but I think Anderson and Finn can be quality. Broad is maturing nicely, though it is 50/50 as to how his career will end up and Bresnan has done exceptionally but I think will go to a 30 average before too long.
 

r3alist

U19 Cricketer
the indian batting order is still there (only a few years older :p)

England batting is as good as ever

SL still have some big guns of the last decade

Aus have a mixture of old and new

Pak have a new line up....

not sure if batting standards have gone down that much.....

Also samaraweera is still there and he played really well in SA :p
You say this but over the past year or two aus, sl and India have capitulated spectacularly a good few times, it seems to me that overall batting quality has decreased a notch, I think pitches are more helpful but the quality of batsmen is less.
 

r3alist

U19 Cricketer
so after my long explanation can you please explain how the batting has slipped????
I just did, that sl, aus and India have been pretty poor?

India - they have had a pretty bad year and they will only get worse, can't rely on the oldies forever.

Aus - inconsistent, less talented than before, humiliated vs SA.

Sl - humiliated by Pakistan in pretty good conditions, almost completely reliant on two guys!

Pak - steady, but unspectacular and untested.


So looking around I also don't think it's such a bad time to be a bowler, especially if the conditions are a bit helpful.
 

smash84

The Tiger King
I think the batting quality has been like this for the past decade or so except that the pitches are now finding out the batsmen which is why you see the collapsing
 

Jacknife

International Captain
On the batting side of things, I do believe that some of the better batsmen around have picked up some bad habits these last few years, it's been evident in a lot of their dismissals. Whether it's down to T20 & one day cricket, or the amount of flat pitches that have cropped up over the years, I don't know but at a guess it's probably down to a bit of both.
 

NUFAN

Y no Afghanistan flag
I think the International Test players should not be allowed to pay T20s. Have a separate Test team to the T20I team.
Way to get even less kids interested in playing Test Cricket.

Honestly, some people and I'm not referring to you now Agent, don't seem to understand that it's pretty unusual to have a golden era of both batting and bowling at the same time. It's pretty much impossible, unless say each team had a complete super star or two and then 4 nuffies averaging 31 with the bat.

Test Cricket is at it's best when both teams score under 350 in the First innings. I'm happy with the fact that we might be going back to 40 being the batting benchmark, with 50 being all time great player for the guys with limited Test experience.
 

Dissector

International Debutant
2011 was the golden year of fast bowling. So I guess the question is: is 2012 the new 2011?:ph34r:
 

smash84

The Tiger King
Test Cricket is at it's best when both teams score under 350 in the First innings. I'm happy with the fact that we might be going back to 40 being the batting benchmark, with 50 being all time great player for the guys with limited Test experience.
This

2011 was the golden year of fast bowling. So I guess the question is: is 2012 the new 2011?:ph34r:
:laugh:
 

Hurricane

Hall of Fame Member
I think the International Test players should not be allowed to pay T20s. Have a separate Test team to the T20I team.
Agree with this - the T20 team should be people like Todd Astle and Adam Milne. Basically up and comers. Then I would tune in to watch it.

Way to get even less kids interested in playing Test Cricket.

Honestly, some people and I'm not referring to you now Agent, don't seem to understand that it's pretty unusual to have a golden era of both batting and bowling at the same time. It's pretty much impossible, unless say each team had a complete super star or two and then 4 nuffies averaging 31 with the bat.

Test Cricket is at it's best when both teams score under 350 in the First innings. I'm happy with the fact that we might be going back to 40 being the batting benchmark, with 50 being all time great player for the guys with limited Test experience.
Would still have the best team playing ODIs - just not 20 20s. Usually there are only 2 of these per tour.

I mainly think that 20 20s damage bowlers the most. More so than batsman. I actually think they enjoy having a carefree tonk out in the middle.
 

Briony

International Debutant
It's the weather. End of a ten year drought in the hemisphere which counts (ours) makes a big difference to conditions.

All this does is show what a ****ing legend McGrath is. Bowling so well in so lifeless an era.

He preyed more on the impatience of batsmen in a lot of ways than relied on pitches. One thing in his favour was the proclivity of modern day batsmen to get on with it rather than play themselves in. Interestingly when NZ toured in the early noughties and made their modus operandi to see McGrath off by leaving the ball at all costs he was a lot less successful. I saw Sachin a score a ton at the 'G some years a back and play maiden after maiden to McGrath. I was amazed the latter continued to bowl outside off forcing him to take risks he was determined not to take. Then again he, more than most bowlers couldn't stand giving away ANY runs. Contrast that with the likes of Lillee, Botham and Steyn who made attack their first priority even if it meant leaking some runs.
 

Briony

International Debutant
I think the ability of the batsmen in coping with conditions that may favour the bowler havde diminished in some respects. Maybe with the advent of T20 there's a reluctance to occupy the crease and just bat with more caution and play percentage shots, rather than always looking to take it to the bowler and attacking them. I don't think this is the reason right across the board, but I'm sure there is an element of this happening.

Maybe techniques have become a little looser and so seaming and swinging conditions are exposing this. I think the art of playing swing bowling has lost its way a touch of late.

Agree with both of those points. Amazing though to see how often the hint of swing or difficult conditions can cause massive collapses. Would be interesting to see some of these batsmen sans helmets, with smaller bats and non roped in boundaries playing these improving bowlers in tough conditions. Would be carnage one feels, especially given the tendency of many to take their eyes off the balls against tough short pitched bowling.
 

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