Tall fast bowlers and their chin music obsession

Tall fast bowlers are like ornaments to the game of cricket. To see a tall fast bowler running in and bowling is such a delight for any and every cricket follower across the world. I am sure that, “tall fast bowlers of West Indies” will be one the most talked about topics of the game if any statistician can provide us this stat. We’ve also seen not-so-tall fast bowlers doing well but the excitement a tall fast bowler brings is something which I and most of us look forward to.

Whenever we see a tall lad running in towards the popping crease, we expect him to bowl a bouncer and rip away the batsman’s head but we, batsman and the “tall” bowler himself underestimate the impact a full length delivery by a tall bowler can have and batsman suddenly starts thinking that batting is not as easy as it appears. Yorker coming from around 9 feet is one of the most challenging deliveries to face for any batsman but most of the fast bowlers are not taking this advantage because they are so much obsessed with the short pitch bowling and chin music.

Let us take the case of Steven Finn, Stuart Broad and Ishant Sharma. These three bowlers are tall and can also bowl fast. Ishant in his debut series against Australia troubled all Aussie batsmen and especially great Ricky Ponting. Ishant got the better of him on almost every occasion and later Ponting praised Ishant saying that his was one of the best spells he had ever faced. In that series, he bowled fast and pitched the ball up around the full and good length area and he was also the most successful Indian fast bowler in that series. As a young, tall fast bowler, Ishant got carried away and his pitch map showed more deliveries in the “short” length area. Ishant kept bowling short and his success graph came down and he was also dropped from the Indian national squad. Ishant has now made a come back and it looks like he has learnt and he is showing signs of improvement.

Another tall fast bowler, from England, Stuart Broad is another victim of “short pitch and chin music obsession.” Broad’s obsession has been criticized by one and all in the cricket world and they all say that he is such a different and a difficult bowler to face when he bowls more in that full and good length zone.

Steven Finn is also a tall fast bowler but thankfully not another victim of this obsession. Finn is one of the best fast bowlers in the world at present and it would be fair to say that he has taken the advantage of his height to the fullest, unlike Ishant and Broad. Finn is also a fast learner and he learnt this aspect of fast bowling very early in his career. Both Ishant and Broad should learn this from Finn and implement in their bowling if they want to stay and make an impact at the international level.

Chin music is a permanent weapon in a tall fast bowler’s armoury and it can be used at will but the bowler who overdoes it, suffers a lot in his career. Even Morne Morkel learnt very early that short pitched bowling should be used a surprise weapon and not every time and he is now of the most dangerous bowlers in test cricket.

There are many tall fast bowlers around the cricketing world and they all should learn this “funda” of working more on full and good length zone than just keep bowling short pitch stuff. Height advantage comes to better use when the bowler makes batsman play around the full and good length area.