The IPL 2025 is upon us and this tournament is a huge test for modern bowlers. Some of the best Indian and international bowlers will be on show in this tournament.
The likes of Mohammed Shami, Jasprit Bumrah, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Arshdeep Singh will play for different franchises. All of them have been playing for a long time and now knows how to bowl in different conditions.
Among the overseas pacers, Mitchell Starc, Pat Cummins, Josh Hazlewood, Kagiso Rabada and Anrich Nortje are set to light up the tournament this year. Nortje will play for KKR, Rabada for Gujarat Titans, Starc for Delhi Capital, Hazlewood for RCB and Cummins will lead SRH.
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Dale Steyn, Shane Bond Talk About Modern Pace Bowling
Talking to ESPN Cricinfo, Shane Bond and Dale Steyn spoke about the art of pace bowling and gave an insight about what the modern pacers are thinking when they have the ball in hand. Bond made a massive comment saying 70 percent of the modern bowlers don't know what they are bowling.
"There's always an assumption as an international bowler: he knows what he's doing. I think 70% of bowlers don't know what they are doing. I say to my captains, don't ever be afraid to tell a bowler what to bowl and then manoeuvre the field for them. Because sometimes just the simplicity of the task makes a massive difference," Shane Bond said in the interview.
Steyn backed up Bond's point, stating that he always talked to team captains about stating things down, because most of the bowlers failed to concentrate in crunch moments of the game.
"I have seen international players today that will run in and bowl six balls without changing the field once, and they've played for ten years at the highest level. And sometimes I sit there and I'm pulling my hair out and I just think, can you not see what's going to happen?" Dale Steyn added to Bond's point.
The two premier bowlers agreed that Kagiso Rabada and Jasprit Bumrah are the only two bowlers who can read the situation of the game and come up with their own game plans. Bond said that to become a good bowler, one needed four non-negotiable things: skill, work ethic, preparation on the opposition batter, and a killer instinct.
"If you look at Bumrah, who's the best bowler in the world, he's that combination of, obviously, skill, [but he] works really hard, does his preparation on the batsman and has the ability to use his instinct as well. And when you combine those four things, that's why he is No. 1 in the world. A lot of bowlers don't have those four things," Shane Bond spoke about Bumrah.
Steyn also echoed Bond's sentiments on the two bowlers saying that they are the only two bowlers who are ahead of the game and thinsk ahead of the batters. He even said that both the pacers are as good as gold.
"You look at guys like [Jasprit] Bumrah, he's probably the all-in-all package, him and KG Rabada. They've got the ability to come and bowl at any particular time in a game and take a wicket. Those guys are like gold. So if you can produce more bowlers like that, we'll start to see our fast-bowling stock get so much better. It's not just about bowling 155kph these days or having tens of different types of skills, it's really about being able to break the game open when your captain needs it," Dale Steyn concluded saying.
Also Read: IPL 2025 - KKR To Bring Back Iconic Black - Gold Jersey For Away Matches - Reports
