England cricket management concerned about their fast bowlers' pace

Kevin Shine (L) believes that too much bowling is hampering the English bowlers’ pace

Lamenting the fact that the England fast bowlers are suffering from burnout, Kevin Shine has commented that the heavy workload is limiting their ability to bowl at a brisk pace, reports ESPNCricinfo.

Shine, who heads the bowling coaching fraternity at the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) stated the quick bowlers need to be handled carefully, stating the English contingent suffers from weariness due to long seasons, hampering their speed as compared to other countries, where the bowlers get ample time to recharge their batteries.

“It is a workload thing,” Shine told ESPNCricinfo. “When you see bowlers come into the game they are fresh, they are firing and eventually time takes its toll. Our bowlers bowl an awful lot. Our bowlers bowl more than any other bowlers in the world.”

England have been blessed with quality fast bowlers like James Anderson, Stuart Broad and Steve Harmison, however, they’ve been found wanting on pace considerably. Shine thinks the bowlers tend to think of long tours, hence mend themselves in order to last the whole season.

“We know from the testing we do and the speeds we get, that we can compete [with other nations] at a high pace. But to sustain that is really tough, so we work a lot on our skills, knowing that we have fallbacks if the pace falls off a bit. We look at seam positions, we work on reverse swing and wobble. We have got pace, but doing it day in, day out is very, very tough.”

England’s latest Ashes triumph was compounded by their bowlers, who constantly had the Australian batsman on the back foot, stamping their authority. "They are probably capable of short spells of getting up to that 90mph mark, but once again there is a huge cost of doing that day in and day out. Our bowlers carry injuries. They bowl in pain at times. And that's part and parcel of the fast bowler's job."

Stats tell the truth

Since the start of 2012 or 2013, James Anderson has bowled the most number of overs considering all 3 cricket formats. Stuart Broad is second in that list. And while Sri Lanka's left-arm spinner Rangana Herath has bowled the most since the start of 2014, Broad and Anderson remain the two busiest seamers.

The stats are especially stark when it comes to comparing workloads in Test cricket. Since the start of 2012, for example, Anderson has bowled 1821.4 overs across 47 Tests. Dale Steyn, by contrast, has bowled 1081.3 overs across 31 Tests and Mitchell Johnson 854.1 across 25 Tests.