New Delhi: Harbhajan Singh, a former Indian spinner, recently shared his technique of curbing the rapid and furious batting in modern T20 cricket.
Harbhajan, having had an illustrious picture with 103 Tests, 236 ODIs and 28 T20Is for India; stressed on the importance of picking wickets as a way of curtailing runs.
This comes at a time when high scores such as 200 have become the norm in this year’s IPL which is currently ongoing, bringing out how batsmen have dominated over bowlers.
He went on to say that the primary goal of bowlers should be taking wickets even if some runs are conceded. “I believe that jo kahe main runs rok lunga, woh runs nahi rok sakta (any bowler who says they can stop runs, cannot actually stop runs) [without taking wickets], even if it’s Lasith Malinga, who has been the best bowler in world T20. In modern-day cricket, it’s Jasprit Bumrah. When you take wickets, that’s when you can put a break on runs. To take wickets good bowling is essential,” he said during the latest episode of 180 Not Out podcast.
Hence he emphasized more about being skilful to score but not by just luck where one has done performed a bad ball full toss and gets a wicket however not every time will go through .Full tote balls are mostly likely to get smashed for sixes.Your economy rate will be good only when you aim to take wickets” he added.
However Harbhajan mentioned something unique regarding his strategic thinking of all formats for bowlers.He prescribes proactive measures targeting at capturing wickets rather than controlling scoring rates.
“You’re doing your job by focusing on taking wickets & moving ahead in life.That’s what I think.I try to pick wickets whenever I play any format-T20s, Tests or ODIs. In that process you might go for more runs, may be 10-12 runs but if you manage to take 2-3 wickets or one crucial wicket then you have done your job.That should be the mindset. Sometimes without this mindset we tend to get thrashed without doing anything. On those days when things like this doesn’t happen, you get thrashed” he added.
