Nothing personal in bouncer barrage
BOWLING plans are all about winning and if brutal bouncers are the best way to get wickets, then that’s what the Aussie attack will do to ram home the Ashes advantage.
Australian bowling coach David Saker discovered the way to victory against England while working for the old enemy in the 2013 Ashes, watching Mitchell Johnson strike fear into the hearts of the touring batsmen as the home team inflicted a 5-0 whitewash.
Names may have changed since then but soft English wickets just cannot prepare batsmen for the shortpitched stuff, which is an Australian speciality, so it had to be the weapon of choice now Saker was with the men in baggy greens.
Refusing to buckle in the face of critics suggesting the tactic needed more control, Saker said the bowler’s job was to take 20 wickets a match and they would get there any way the rules allowed.
“The plan was set up four years previous when Mitchell Johnson and Ryan Harris targeted the English tail. I was coaching for England and watched it from the other side of the fence,” Saker said before Boxing Day.
“It’s brutal and scary but you know they are just using it to try and unsettle the team. It’s not used out of malice, but to get wickets.
“Watching how the English guys played it then, and now being involved with Australia, the bowlers got the same message: when the tail is in, we go after them. We’re not trying to hurt them, it’s just about unsettling them and making a statement in the game. They have done that brilliantly.”
In Melbourne one of the Australian quicks is down, Mitch Starc gone with Jackson Bird, who bowls a mean bouncer himself by all reports, brought in to keep up the attack.
But while they may be mean balls, Saker, a former fast bowler himself, said the Aussie bowlers were not mean guys, and when they hit someone in the head, they feel it.
“I wouldn’t say these guys enjoy going out and tormenting someone, they are not that sort of person. I know some fast bowlers of the past definitely enjoyed inflicting some pain,” he said.