India’s bouncer strategy won’t be as effective as Neil Wagner, feels Matthew Wade

Neil Wagner was at the centre of all the discussion when he got the apparently-unbeatable Steve Smith four times in a row during the last series between the Trans-Tasman rivals and became a cult figure worldover. As per a revealing statistics put up on the ICC official website in April, since January 2018, the Kiwi man has bowled 1068 short balls, over 30 per cent more than his closest competitor Pat Cummins (811) and almost twice as many as third-placed Ben Stokes (568).

The effectiveness of that style is right at the top and something Wade believes would be extremely hard to emulate even though Indian pacers try hard against Australia in the upcoming summer.

"Teams may try it but I don't think it will be as successful. I don't think anyone in the game has bowled bouncers the way he bowled and been so consistent, and not gotten scored off while also picking up wickets,” Wade told cricket.com.au. 

"I think we'll see it a bit (from India) but I don't think it will be as effective as Wagner. He's done it for a long time now ... to be honest, I've never faced a bowler who is so accurate at bowling bouncers.”

Jofra Archer, who floored Steve Smith with his short stuff in the 2019 Ashes, had a mini battle of sorts in The Oval Test with the Aussie wicket-keeper, but the Tasmanian believes that in all goodness, the Barbados-born English pacer was not close to the effectiveness of Wagner.

"It was a good contest [with Wagner]. I had a bit of a contest with Jofra in the Ashes but he wasn't as accurate as Wagner, and Wagner's left arm was coming at funny angles to our guys," he said.