Bowlers do not practise yorkers enough in nets: Glenn McGrath

Chennai: Australian pace great Glenn McGrath today said that Indian team would need to execute their plans properly during their one-off Test match against Bangladesh starting in Fatullah on Wednesday. “There is only one test and they need to play like any other test. When you play in a test series you think about the next test. You do not think about the second or third test here,” McGrath said. “They (Indians) must have prepared themselves for the single test and they need to execute their plans. It is just another test match,” said McGrath who is currently the coaching director of the MRF Pace Foundation at Chennai. [caption id=“attachment_2056611” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] File picture of Glenn McGrath. Reuters[/caption] The Bangladesh tour, which also features three ODIs, will see Ravi Shastri once again donning the role of Team Director. The former India captain has said India doesn’t need a head coach now and he might fill up the role if needed. Asked to define the role of a chief coach and a team director, McGrath said: “I do not know if what Ravi is doing is different to what a team coach will do. I do not know what the job description is for Ravi. If he is not, then I do not know again.” Talking about the ongoing series of Australia and England against the West Indies and New Zealand respectively, he said: “I think the way the Australians are playing they can win 10-0. If England want to be competitive, they have to really lift themselves.” On his objectives for MRF Academy, McGrath said: “For me personally, we are only giving the facility for the spinners to use and they have their own spin coach here and he is working with them.” “Troy Cooley (Australia’s National Cricket Centre head coach) has brought in fast bowlers for training at the Academy. In order to have few games here he has brought couple of batsmen and bowlers too.” “I will work with the boys of the Academy and the junior fast bowlers from Australia and BCCI is sending couple of boys for training here till June 20. We still focus on the fast bowlers. I cannot teach on how to play against spin.” Asked about Australian fast bowler Mitchell Starc, who was awarded Man of the Tournament in the 2015 World Cup, McGrath said: “He always had the potential and bowls at 150kmph, a left armer who swings the ball. He is a one-day player and knows the format very well. “He can bowl with the new ball and take a couple of wickets; come back with the older ball and bowl good yorkers that not many bowlers in world cricket can do, perhaps except Malinga. He bowls such good yorkers in one day games.” “Still, he can bowl well in test too. I think the confidence that he has got in one-dayers he has carried it to the tests too. World cups, one day games and T-20 games suit his type of bowlers.” Emphasizing on yorkers, McGrath said: “I do not think that the bowlers practice enough at the nets. If you are practicing to bowl yorkers at the nets, you need to bowl behind the line. If you are bowling no balls, you are practicing the wrong way.” “Even if you are bowling good yorkers in the nets, going over the front line and if you do not practice at the nets you cannot straightaway bowl your length in a competitive game,” he added. Heaping praise on the budding young bowlers at the MRF Academy, McGrath said: “I can bet that every one of the boys from MRF Academy is good. I had already mentioned Varon and Ishwar and hopefully they get more opportunities.” “Ashwin Christ is coming up well. He always had the potential and now he has started thinking about himself as to what he could do in a game. That is what you want the bowlers to do. They have to think for themselves and set plans and execute them.” On ICC rule of having one more fielder during powerplay and allowing one more bouncer, the 45-year-old said: “Probably if you got one more fielder when the power play is up, then you can protect one portion of the field. Some batsmen look at the short ball as a scoring option.” “Again it depends on the bowler. He should know what fields that he requires. It is something that a bowler needs to show more perfection that can work in his favour,” he added. Cooley said Shastri may “walk into” the job of chief coach of the Indian cricket team. “I think the relationship between the captain and coach is necessary as he cannot talk to 10 people. The captain leads the players and works with the coach. When it comes to decision making, final call is taken by the captain and the coach.” “I am led to believe that Ravi would walk into that spot (chief coach) and it is my take. I do not know, he would be still the head coach. In a team, a coach, head coach and captain is the common thing. Otherwise, there will be confusion,” said Cooley, who earlier worked as bowling coach of England team. “I had always supported somebody in charge. Ravi is still in charge and he is bringing his counsel around him until you find another coach. In Australia, we love great champions coming back,” he added. Asked if India should play its full strength team against Bangladesh, Cooley said, “I am always for giving young players the opportunity. Of course, Bangladesh would be a great opportunity for young players in Indian team. On the objective of his visit to Chennai, he said, “We have a great relationship between the two countries and we have Border-Gavaskar trophy. We have exchange programmes of players coming through from these two academies (NCC and MRF). We wanted to make sure that young players get exposed to all the conditions all around the world.” “Our boys and girls grow up on fast bouncy tracks. Australian players grow up in pitches not conducive to spin. When we want to develop players for every condition we have to do things like this. We have invited curators from India wanting to learn from experts. If you want to play good international cricket, exposing cricketers to all conditions is very important.” PTI