Arjun
Cricketer Of The Year
Check the figures of pace bowlers in conditions outside Asia, over the past three years. Look at who's leading the wickets tally outside Asia. Then take a look at how many overs an innings they tend to bowl.
The top bowlers bowl an average of 19 overs an innings, while a few (like Anderson at 22 and Broad at 20), push it to a little over 20. The fastest men with the ball- Steyn, Morkel, Johnson, Roach, Siddle- hit a maximum of 18 overs an innings. Then look at the struggling Indian pace bowlers in this period. The least number of overs bowled is 20 by Shami, currently a live figure. You have Bhuvneshwar bowling 23, Ishant bowling 24, and Zaheer, 26. The lone exception is Umesh Yadav, who's got less than 20 an innings. That's an excessive workload on the bowlers, and very poor management. And then we wonder why they get injured, or lose their pace and their strike power, or end up in slumps in form. Difficult to expect your prime pace bowlers to hit serious pace figures and strike rates over a career with a workload this heavy. This definitely needs some thought. Either you play five bowlers, or have a batsman like Rohit Sharma bowling as much as any of these bowlers (actually more, because he'll bat as low as six), but these overs-per-innings figures are not good.
The top bowlers bowl an average of 19 overs an innings, while a few (like Anderson at 22 and Broad at 20), push it to a little over 20. The fastest men with the ball- Steyn, Morkel, Johnson, Roach, Siddle- hit a maximum of 18 overs an innings. Then look at the struggling Indian pace bowlers in this period. The least number of overs bowled is 20 by Shami, currently a live figure. You have Bhuvneshwar bowling 23, Ishant bowling 24, and Zaheer, 26. The lone exception is Umesh Yadav, who's got less than 20 an innings. That's an excessive workload on the bowlers, and very poor management. And then we wonder why they get injured, or lose their pace and their strike power, or end up in slumps in form. Difficult to expect your prime pace bowlers to hit serious pace figures and strike rates over a career with a workload this heavy. This definitely needs some thought. Either you play five bowlers, or have a batsman like Rohit Sharma bowling as much as any of these bowlers (actually more, because he'll bat as low as six), but these overs-per-innings figures are not good.
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