Swing in their strides

Much before he made his international debut,Praveen Kumar loved hearing stories about cricket in England...

Much before he made his international debut,Praveen Kumar loved hearing stories about cricket in England. There were several players on the Indian domestic circuit who had played club cricket there and they would paint a rosy picture of the land,calling it a paradise for swing bowlers.

A year-and-a-half after making his international debut,Praveen will get an opportunity to get a first-hand feel of those conditions during the World T20. On the back of a fine show in Australia and then in New Zealand,he cant wait to role his arm over in England. Swing is my main weapon,and so many people have told me how well my kind of bowling works in England. Ive been speaking to RP Singh about the conditions and weve discussed in detail how one should bowl there, Praveen told The Indian Express.

His UP Ranji team mate,RP Singh qualifies as the right man to talk to before an England trip. In 2007,it was the Zaheer Khan-RP Singh swing combination that had helped India record a Test win there. And while Praveen is hoping for RP to be his mentor,Ishant Sharma is,as usual,sticking around Zaheer for his inputs at every net session. Ishant was part of the Indian team to England in 2007 but as a rookie on a study tour,and a common sight on the trip was bowling coach Venkatesh Prasad himself a success story in England during his playing days spending hours at the nets with Ishant.

I remember how Ranadeb Bose took a five-wicket-haul with his swing during a practice game, Ishant said about his first tour. I was on bench all the time,I never got a chance to play,so Im excited to do well this time. But this is T20 cricket,so well have to wait and see what happens.

As far as Praveen is concerned,he is convinced that swing bowling has a role to play in the slam-bang version of the game.

As was the case in South Africa,good swing bowling can make a difference in this form. The first six overs of the innings are very important. If the ball is doing a bit,it becomes difficult for the batsmen to hit out,and a couple of early wickets can decide if a team will cross the 150-run mark, he said.

Lalchand Rajput,who was the Indian teams cricket manager during the 2007 series and the last T20 World Cup in South Africa,explained how crucial the swing bowlers were on both those trips. We had three swing bowlers in our team. Sreesanth was the only paceman who relied on seam movement. The others RP,Irfan Pathan and Joginder Sharma were all swing bowlers. In this team,Sreesanth has been replaced by Ishant and Joginder by Praveen. So the ingredients are the same, said Rajput.

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In T20,you know that the batsmen will go after the bowlers. The more the pace,the more powerful will be the shots. But against a swing bowler,batsmen need to check their strokes time and again, the former India opener added.

It is perhaps because of this that Dhoni didnt seem too perturbed over Zaheer Khans fitness and Ishant Sharmas form the day the team flew out to defend their title. By the way RP and Praveen have been bowling in the IPL,we have a strong bench. Im not even sure who will take the new ball right now, Dhoni had said.