Munaf Patel
Munaf Patel is tall but not very tall. However the high arm action means that he extracts awkward bounce off a length just short of good length. As a result, he is very difficult to play and not just get away for runs. Comparisons to McGrath have been made and they are not completely unjustified. However, it will be unust to Patel to put such huge expectations on him.
One aspect which he has lacked so far in his career has been the accuracy. How difficult it is to attain accuracy has often been under played. Patel has gone down the path of becoming more accurate at the cost of losing pace. Now pace is a weapon which not many have and so I am always against a bowler who can bowl fast to sacrifice his natural edge. One school of thought is that as bowlers have little room for error in a ground like Kinrara (small stadium), Patel is going for honing his accuracy. I have no qualms with this approach if it is only a short term measure.
When Patel can get the batsmen in uncomortable positions on a Kinrara pitch because of the bounce from the just short of good length, the potential on a more bouncier pitch like say pitches in South Africa is immense. Get back to the normal 90 miles Patel bowls at and keep the accuracy close to what he is getting in Malaysia and you have a dangerous bowler.
What is missing in the Patel armoury? Variation. You need to swing the ball both ways and even reverse it if you can and keep the batsmen guessing. A hindrance for Patel which has been stated often is his high arm action as opposed to the round arm action of say Ajit Agarkar (who has every delivery in his kitty). I don’t see why Patel cannot develop variations in his bowling. Patel has already shown that he is a keen student of the game and in due course, he is bound to get more weapons.
South Africans are among the best players of pace bowling in the world. You need more than just pace and accuracy to get the best of them. You need to pitch the ball at the right spot and outfox the batsman as well with variation. I hope he doesn’t change the length drastically there because a common mistake bowlers have made when they get more bouncier pitches is start bowling shorter. The hook and pull not being a problem for the batsmen, that means easy runs. It is a mistake Srinath often made.
I am looking forward to how Patel bowls in South Africa and regardless of how he fares, it will show us how far he has developed and give us a glimpse at what more Patel needs to do to improve further.
Tags: Indian Cricket.
