India vs England, 2nd Test: Ishant Sharma can benefit from Lord’s slope, feels Glenn McGrath

It’s not that they have never played at this venue before. But every time an overseas team pitches up at the Home of English cricket, batsmen and the bowlers have to make adjustments to counter that niggling slope. To put things in perspective, fast bowlers from the Pavilion End tend to get extra purchase and move the ball into right-handed batsmen more prodigiously because of this slope.

Ishant Sharma, with his height and booming inswingers, will relish the prospect of bowling from this End. Four summers ago, he ran through the English middle order with a match-winning 7-wicket haul. He will miss the services of Bhuvneshwar Kumar though, who scalped six in the first innings of that game. That was the first and only instance when two Indian fast bowlers (Bhuvneshwar and Ishant) got a six-for or more in the same Test.

Despite Ishant’s exploits in 2014, Glenn McGrath, the former Australia fast bowler, who enjoyed tremendous success in his three Tests at this famed venue, offered a note of caution. “As a bowler, it’s not easy to get into the groove at Lord’s straightaway. Seeing the slope can sometimes get the better of you. I have seen bowlers in the past bowling too short or losing their line while searching for that extra yard of pace,” he noted.

Hit the seam and aim at the off-stump: That’s McGrath’s mantra to Indian bowlers. “For bowlers, the slope is a mind thing, really. On a pitch like that, it’s important to keep it simple. Hit the right area and get the ball to seam — one ball would come in, and the other would go away,” he said on the sidelines of a camp organised for fast bowlers by the Haryana Cricket Association and MRF Pace Academy in Lahli, Haryana.

It’s a simplistic explanation, but one that turned McGrath into a lethal match-winner. His returns at Lord’s have been pretty prolific — 26 wickets from three Tests (1997, 2001 and 2005). The 48-year-old said he loved the slope and reckoned that Ishant, like him, would prefer to bowl from the Pavilion End.

“Playing at Lord’s is always special. I always preferred bowling from the Pavilion End. The slope suited my style. The natural variation of the ground helped me. I think Ishant will also prefer to bowl from that End, using his height and getting the ball to either come back in or hold its line.”

What pleases him more than his scalps is his stint with the bat in the three innings. “I have scored 30 runs here and was never dismissed. More than my wickets, that’s a stat not a lot of people talk about,” he joked.

Ishant Sharma has been fined for his excessive celebrations after taking Dawid Malan’s wicket. (Source: Reuters)

The English conditions and the Dukes ball always brought out the best in McGrath. It’s not much of a surprise when he quipped: “Give me the Dukes ball any day and I will be the happiest bloke. Dukes is a great ball to bowl with. When I played matches with it, my average was six-and-a-half wickets per Test match while with the Kookaburra, it would be 4-and-a-half,” he added.

He noted that the Dukes had a more pronounced seam than the Australian Kookaburra and even aided reverse swing, sometimes as early as in the 12th over.

The Kookaburra balls losing potency in recent times on flat, docile tracks has stirred a debate about bringing a change of ball in Test cricket. But McGrath does not want one single brand for cricket throughout the world. “Playing with Dukes in Australia would have been like Christmas, but I think it makes you a better cricketer if you can bowl with all three — Dukes, Kookaburra and SG Test. That is the beauty and challenge of playing Test cricket wherein players can adapt to these vastly different types of balls.”

India’s effervescent bowling in Birmingham showed that they have adapted to the Dukes ball. Now, it’s about getting acclimatised to the fabled Lord’s slope.