‘If you don’t have a yorker, you will not last long:’ Dwayne Bravo on the art of death bowling in T20s

It is perhaps fitting that Bravo has quietly positioned himself in the Chennai Super Kings dugout as a bowling coach. Just like how precise he was when it came to delivering yorkers, he arrives on time for the interaction. Not a second late or early, but sharply at 1 pm, the scheduled time of interaction. Listening to Bravo, especially about the nuances of death bowling or how bowlers have to go about in T20s, one thing stands out as to how he converted yorker as the best form of defence against batters who are always on the offensive.

It doesn’t take long before Bravo faces the inevitable question as to what is the best ball to bowl at the death. “Well, the best is, it always has to be the yorker, but it’s one of the most difficult balls to bowl,” he says. “You have to really put in the hours and practice. Get a lot of, you know, different options from over the wicket, around the wicket, bowling wide, bowling straight. So it is the most important ball in the bowling arsenal.”

Despite having the ability to nail yorkers at will, in the bowling front, Bravo was as innovative as batsmen when it came down to using their 360-degree range. Unlike his contemporary Lasith Malinga, whose yorkers were mostly toe-crushers, Bravo mixed the lines, mostly preferring to land them wide of off. And just as batters were beginning to get a hang of it, towards the fag end of his career, he even started bowling from the round the stumps to the right-handers, cramping them for room.

And unlike Malinga or Jasprit Bumrah, Shaheen Shah Afridi or Mitchell Starc, who could all clock 145 kmph-plus, Bravo wasn’t express quick. But still showed his yorkers could be lethal. Even though he had the off-cutters, slower bouncers, back-off the hand slower ball and loads of other tricks, Bravo feels yorker is the ultimate fall back option to have at the death.

“It’s something you got to have in this format. If you don’t have a yorker, you will not last long, you will not survive, unless you bowl really quick, like 150 plus. So even if you bowl out 150-plus there comes a moment where you need to really rely on a yorker because it’s the most difficult ball to get away and is the safest option. And whenever you are under pressure, especially in the back end of the innings, yorker is a go-to ball,” Bravo says.

According to Bravo, to make up for his lack of pace, he used slower balls in sub-continental conditions as batsmen would be forced to work their power around. It is something Bravo is passing on to Chennai Super Kings’ young pace battery that has struggled to control the run flow in the death.

“I worked on my slower ball because I don’t have that extra pace to intimidate batsmen. So I rely a lot more on the execution of my skills and that knowledge is something I’m trying to pass on to our bowling group which is similar. They’re all medium pacers, no one bowls at 150. It is about getting them to understand the importance of the slower ones and yorkers. Everyone has different variations, but if you try them all, it becomes way too many. It is all about keeping it simple,” Bravo says.

While Indian pacers have benefited a lot by spending time with overseas quicks – Bumrah’s development under Malinga being a case in point – Bravo believes absorbing the pressure is the first step in growing as a bowler. “The more games you play, you will start to learn things on your own, develop things on your own. You know, practice is a key preparation moment going into the game. The game intensity will take over and the margin of error is very slim when you play in a tournament like IPL which is the toughest tournament in the world. You don’t play in this kind of tournament every day. So you have to absorb it and practice game by game,” Bravo says.