Thoughts on Balaji
Balaaaji! Zara dheere chalo! The cry was heard around the stadiums in Pakistan during the historic Indian tour. His big smile, swarthy complexion, and some banana outswingers had warmed him to the Pakistani people. He came back home a hero only to lose his way in the ODIs and now has vanished from the scene. Gone…just like that.
Lots of tinkering with his action, quite a few ‘niggling’ injuries has meant a relegation to sidelines and once you are out of an Indian’s sight, you are out of his mind. The selectors have relegated him to domestic cricket.
A fully fit Balaji who is in control of his bowling would add teeth to the Indian bowling lineup dominated by left arm bowlers, even, and especially in, Indian conditions where swing dies after few overs and one needs either pace to hustle or seam movement to create nuisance. Balaji started out as a wide-of-the-crease bowler with a big incutter but a yearning not to be a one-trick pony set him on a pursuit of a ball that goes away. It was in England during the India A tour in 2003, although he got only 12 wickets in six first-class matches, that he got a few to swing it away. "I focussed on my follow through and release. During my run up, my arm was away from the body. Now it is closer,” Balaji had revealed then. The changes have been constant, frequent features in his bowling. And in the Irani Trophy 2003 at MA Chidambaram stadium, playing for Rest of India against Mumbai, he straightened a few, moved it away and then did Wasim Jaffer as he shouldered arms to a ball that nipped back in. The transformation while still not complete was on its way. If he hadn’t made few of the deliveries to straighten and hold its line, Jaffer wouldn’t have tricked to let the fatal one to go. Still there was much work needed to be done: Apart from a need for a smoother run-up, he had to learn how to use the non-bowling left arm before release that would prevent his head from falling. And that came under the tutelage of Bruce Reid in the Indian tour of Australia in 2004.
At the tour game in Hobart he ran in closer to the stumps than before, stopped falling towards his left shoulder as alarmingly as he did before, his cocked up wrist action got more straighter, head while not yet still, got into much better position. He still had his nip-backers, removed Martin Love with a one such beauty. In the ODIs in Australia, he started to get his outswingers going but they started from well outside off stump as his right hand, at the point of release, was more closer to the left shoulder. It was always like that for him: he would deliver from the extreme width of the crease and have that angled cocked up wrist action and would send across the nip-backer. Those who have played gully cricket would know, how we used to lean towards the left, move the throwing right arm towards left shoulder and then with a cocked up wrist release it, hoping it would be a huge nip backer. Of course the slogger at the other end would have just stood there and smashed it over deep mid-wicket!
Back to Balaji. He had changed the wrist position ideal for an outswinger but his bowling arm was still close to his left shoulder. A young Courtney Walsh used to do this, chest on action and right arm inclined more to left shoulder. Balaji then worked on increasing his pace, apart from a smoother run up, he tried getting his upper body arch back just prior to the release, and also tried to get into a semi-side on posture. All his efforts have been geared towards achieving two things- outswingers and pace, two necessary weapons in bowler’s armoury but also maybe he had fallen in love with the outswingers so much that he nearly shun his old stock weapon, the big incutter. Walsh never lost it even as he adjusted his action to get the ball to straighten. Indian cricket followers would remember Aashish Nehra going through a similar crisis- burst onto the scene, in Zimbabwe, with some sensational outswinger to left-hand batsmen that would seam back in to the right hand batsmen cutting them into half. He felt he need to get that one that goes away from the right-hand bat and in going for it lost his original weapon. Of course the injuries had also forced Nehra to switch to a semi-open release action from the previous side-on but also the pursuit of the delivery that slants away had also played its role.
Its important to for any bowler to have a complete control over his stock weapon, that at any point of time he can fall back upon it. Balaji is not a swing bowler, rather was not one, and the attempt to widen the armoury has meant the old weapons in quiver have lost sharpness. Balaji in trying to create a new identity has ended up tinkering with his action too many times. Instead he would do well to get back to his basics and slowly crystallize his action and work on his fitness. Being neglected by the selectors offers him a chance to sweat it out in the domestics doing exactly that. His future lies not only in his wrist but between his ears.
Lots of tinkering with his action, quite a few ‘niggling’ injuries has meant a relegation to sidelines and once you are out of an Indian’s sight, you are out of his mind. The selectors have relegated him to domestic cricket.
A fully fit Balaji who is in control of his bowling would add teeth to the Indian bowling lineup dominated by left arm bowlers, even, and especially in, Indian conditions where swing dies after few overs and one needs either pace to hustle or seam movement to create nuisance. Balaji started out as a wide-of-the-crease bowler with a big incutter but a yearning not to be a one-trick pony set him on a pursuit of a ball that goes away. It was in England during the India A tour in 2003, although he got only 12 wickets in six first-class matches, that he got a few to swing it away. "I focussed on my follow through and release. During my run up, my arm was away from the body. Now it is closer,” Balaji had revealed then. The changes have been constant, frequent features in his bowling. And in the Irani Trophy 2003 at MA Chidambaram stadium, playing for Rest of India against Mumbai, he straightened a few, moved it away and then did Wasim Jaffer as he shouldered arms to a ball that nipped back in. The transformation while still not complete was on its way. If he hadn’t made few of the deliveries to straighten and hold its line, Jaffer wouldn’t have tricked to let the fatal one to go. Still there was much work needed to be done: Apart from a need for a smoother run-up, he had to learn how to use the non-bowling left arm before release that would prevent his head from falling. And that came under the tutelage of Bruce Reid in the Indian tour of Australia in 2004.
At the tour game in Hobart he ran in closer to the stumps than before, stopped falling towards his left shoulder as alarmingly as he did before, his cocked up wrist action got more straighter, head while not yet still, got into much better position. He still had his nip-backers, removed Martin Love with a one such beauty. In the ODIs in Australia, he started to get his outswingers going but they started from well outside off stump as his right hand, at the point of release, was more closer to the left shoulder. It was always like that for him: he would deliver from the extreme width of the crease and have that angled cocked up wrist action and would send across the nip-backer. Those who have played gully cricket would know, how we used to lean towards the left, move the throwing right arm towards left shoulder and then with a cocked up wrist release it, hoping it would be a huge nip backer. Of course the slogger at the other end would have just stood there and smashed it over deep mid-wicket!
Back to Balaji. He had changed the wrist position ideal for an outswinger but his bowling arm was still close to his left shoulder. A young Courtney Walsh used to do this, chest on action and right arm inclined more to left shoulder. Balaji then worked on increasing his pace, apart from a smoother run up, he tried getting his upper body arch back just prior to the release, and also tried to get into a semi-side on posture. All his efforts have been geared towards achieving two things- outswingers and pace, two necessary weapons in bowler’s armoury but also maybe he had fallen in love with the outswingers so much that he nearly shun his old stock weapon, the big incutter. Walsh never lost it even as he adjusted his action to get the ball to straighten. Indian cricket followers would remember Aashish Nehra going through a similar crisis- burst onto the scene, in Zimbabwe, with some sensational outswinger to left-hand batsmen that would seam back in to the right hand batsmen cutting them into half. He felt he need to get that one that goes away from the right-hand bat and in going for it lost his original weapon. Of course the injuries had also forced Nehra to switch to a semi-open release action from the previous side-on but also the pursuit of the delivery that slants away had also played its role.
Its important to for any bowler to have a complete control over his stock weapon, that at any point of time he can fall back upon it. Balaji is not a swing bowler, rather was not one, and the attempt to widen the armoury has meant the old weapons in quiver have lost sharpness. Balaji in trying to create a new identity has ended up tinkering with his action too many times. Instead he would do well to get back to his basics and slowly crystallize his action and work on his fitness. Being neglected by the selectors offers him a chance to sweat it out in the domestics doing exactly that. His future lies not only in his wrist but between his ears.
posted by Sriram Veera at 1:27 AM
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