Surprised That They Were Not Able To Change Their Length - Former India Cricketers Give Advice To Indian Pacers For WTC Final

Former India cricketers VVS Laxman and Sanjay Bangar air their opinions about bowling of India’s pace troika – Jasprit Bumrah, Ishant Sharma, and Mohammed Shami – in New Zealand‘s first innings of the ongoing WTC Final at The Ageas Bowl, and give their suggestions for the remainder of the game.

Indian bowlers toiled hard for 34 overs to breach the Kiwi opening pair of Tom Latham and Devon Conway; it was Ravichandran Ashwin who did it. The Indian pace trio was found not bowling fuller lengths, as the Kiwi pacer had done in their first essay.

Bumrah and Ishant in particular during their opening burst stuck to good length deliveries, hence found much lesser swing than their New Zealand counterpart did. VVS Laxman says that he was actually surprised to see Bumrah, and others, not change their length to more towards the batsmen, which, he feels, is needed in those conditions.

“I was surprised that Bumrah was not able to change the length which is required to be effective in English conditions. You want the batsmen to drive the ball through the covers in these conditions. You want to create that chance by getting that outside edge,” VVS Laxman said while speaking with Star Sports.

“Also, if you are making them hit the ball away from their body which majority of the New Zealand batsmen can do because they don’t take a long strike when playing front-foot drives. That when you create that pad and pad gap,” he further said.

India vs New Zealand: Sanjay Bangar gives his advice to Ishant Sharma:

Former India batting coach Sanjay Bangar agreed with Laxman’s opinions. He added his own as well saying that Indian pacers, Ishant Sharma in particular could try going wide of the crease in order to gain more swing, which Bangar believes, will trouble the Kiwi skipper Kane Williamson.

Ishant was the second wicket-taker for India, albeit from a bizarre shot from Conway. The lanky seamer has bowed very well so far, conceding just 19 runs from 12 overs.

“Yeah, I agree with Laxman. Ishant was able to derive the maximum swing and seam. For the majority of his cricketing career, Ishant has always been an inswing bowler. When an inswing bowler tends to go closer to the stumps, then he loses that swing quite a bit.

“So one of the things that Ishant can also try is to get slightly wider of the crease so that his inswing becomes more prominent. Then the one which holds the line could become a dreadful ball and for somebody like Kane Williamson, that could very well be an ideal bowler.

“If I have to give one piece of advice to Indian bowlers, especially Ishant and Bumrah, is that they have to bowl slightly wider of the crease,” Bangar concluded.

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