James Anderson looked half the bowler when the ball stopped swinging, states Ashish Nehra
Ashish Nehra has stated that James Anderson looked half the bowler when the ball stopped swinging during England’s first Test against West Indies due to lack of saliva. On the other hand, Irfan Pathan gave a solution to the lack of saliva issue, opining that pitches should be 60-40 to the bowlers.
James Anderson arguably has been one of the very best in the world with a Dukes ball in his hand. However, during the first Test against West Indies following international cricket’s return, Anderson’s strength has turned into his weakness with the saliva ban issued by the ICC. The ICC’s guidelines that suggested saliva ban has had an immediate impact on the proceedings for the English bowlers, who looked struggling for help.
Indian veteran Ashish Nehra put his two cents in the discussion that Anderson looked half the bowler when the ball stopped swinging in saliva’s absence. Citing instances from the game, Nehra was quick to pounce upon how West Indies batsmen were driving the 37-year-old at the Rose Bowl in absence of swing. Anderson returned with a spell of 3/104 from his 40 overs in the entire match.
"Jimmy Anderson was bowling short of a length at times and he never bowls such short of length. Because the Dukes ball wasn't swinging. The reason being lack of shine with no saliva being allowed and whenever he tried pitching up, the Windies batsmen were driving easily," Nehra told PTI on Monday.
In the absence of saliva, the ICC, under its guidelines, had allowed the use of sweat as a medium to maintain the shine of the ball. However, owing to the English conditions which were not warm and humid enough, sweat did not play that a big a role in the proceedings.
"Not being able to use saliva when there isn't much perspiration will be a problem. Anderson's strength is to pitch it up and get it to swing which leads to caught behind and slip catches. He looked half the bowler when it stopped swinging " said Nehra.
Irfan Pathan, on the other hand, was quick to offer a solution to the debate on how the bowlers could regain their mojo back with the saliva ban. The left-handed all-rounder instigated that conditions and pitches should be made to offer more help to seam bowling with a bit of moisture on the top. Pathan opined that making the pitches 60/40 in the favour of bowlers would be of great benefit and help.
"Simple. Allow use of external substances or else for sometime forget that reverse swing exists. Make pitches that will be conducive to seam bowling. If you ask me keep a bit of moisture to make it 60/40 in favour of bowlers. If there's moisture, the ball would grip the surface and then both sweat and saliva are out of the equation,” Pathan said.