It's a cliché to say that cricket is a batsman's game. But, you can't stop yourself feel sorry for the bowlers when you see a certain Glenn Maxwell hitting virtually every ball out of the ground with such disrespect that reminds of Spartan warriors in the movie 300.
The bowlers, however, are not one of Xerxes' (Persian god-king) army-men. They are like common Greeks, who were fighting for their survival in a battle that is hugely skewed in favour of the opposition (read batsmen). Conditions — flat pitches, short boundaries — and rules — fielding restrictions — are there to assist batsmen, who are armed with bulging bats.
Necessity, as they say, is the mother of all inventions, the survival instinct in the bowlers has helped them devise some ways to stop the murderous batsmen. Slower ones, carom balls, wide yorkers and slow bouncers have become part of their arsenal.
"Bowlers are slightly disadvantaged in this format because of the change in the mindset of the batsmen. You have only 20 overs and 10 wickets to lose. You go there with a different mindset altogether," Javagal Srinath, former India pacer, told The Pioneer on the sidelines of a promotional event to launch special edition razors by Gillette India here on Tuesday.
"Bowlers are at the receiving end on most of the occasions. Therefore that puts added responsibility on the bowlers to learn extra skills in terms of the varieties like slower ones, where to bowl, how to use the crease, how to use the wide line and how to vary the line and length. So, the bowler has to think a lot before delivering a bowl," he added.
Another former India pacer Venkatesh Prasad, who bowled in tandem with Srinath, agreed with his former bowling partner. "I won't say it's hard, but it's not easy. Definitely, it's much more challenging (for bowlers) than the batsmen. As a bowler, you have to be courageous and smart. You need to be intelligent," he said.
Sunil Narine is one good example of an intelligent bowler. His team, Kolkata Knight Riders, counts on him to win them matches and his economy rate of 5.42 with 51 scalps in 33 IPl matches justify KKR skipper Gautam Gambhir's belief in him. "A good bowler will always be a match winner for you. No matter how many runs are scored, when a bowler runs through, you can always win a match," he said.
But, on the other hand, Twenty20 cricket is affecting the bowlers' wicket-taking abilities as the focus is on containing the batsmen. Srinath feels the onus is on bowlers to adapt to different formats and maintain quality. "You can't be one dimensional. I mean if you have the capability of playing in T20s, it is another dimension you have added to your bowling. So whatever you do in the T20s not necessarily means that you do the same in the Tests and ODIs. So, you got to change your mindset for the Test cricket, for the ODIs and for the T20s. That flexibility is what you seek (as a bowler)," he said.
Srinath, the only Indian pacer to take 300 and more ODI wickets, was all praise for the current pack of Indian pacers. "Shami looks good. Even Bhuvaneshwar Kumar is shaping up well. Ishant is still in the hunt. I think the England series will really test the quality that India has."
Indeed, T20 is no benchmark to judge the ability of a player. It is the Test cricket that brings out the real character of a player. And, unlike limited overs cricket, it gives bowlers a fair chance to leave an impact on the match. They don’t play in the hands of the batsmen.