Aaron a rare positive of England tour
Much like his razor- sharp line and length, Glenn McGrath’s views are immaculately to the point. “Cricket is a simple game, but we always like to complicate it,” said the Australian legend while trying to explain what it takes to be a successful fast bowler.
“To excel as a fast bowler, you need to have something upstairs. Skills, fitness and strength will take you only so far, but it’s attitude that takes you the rest of the way,” said McGrath, who will work with Indian pacers as part of BCCI’s agreement with the MRF Pace Foundation.
The Aussie said India is
the toughest place to be a fast bowler. “If you can succeed here, you can do well anywhere. During my formative years, I was lucky enough to train under Dennis Lillee here at the Pace Foundation. When Dennis first approached me, I was a bit hesitant, but when I came over here in 1992 I started realising the importance of it,” added McGrath, the most successful pacer in the history of Test cricket with 563 wickets.
McGrath was eager to share his expertise with Indian bowlers. “What I can offer is my findings of mental preparation and thought processes before a match. I firmly believe Indian bowlers have skills but they need a little bit of fine tuning in areas such as mental toughness and adjusting to alien conditions,” he added.
The 44- year- old has high hopes on his trainee Varun Aaron. “He is impressively fast for an Indian and also capable of moving the ball. He bowled really well in England and was one of the positives of the tour. Early in his career , Australia’s Mitchell Johnson was really fast but he didn’t have control . Now , there is com - pletetrans - formation in his game after he worked on it. I think Varun can also suc-ceed like Johnson. The conditions in Australia will suit him well,” said McGrath adding that Ishwar Pandey, who didn’t get an opportunity in England, is an exciting prospect.
McGrath is eager to sit down with India’s spearhead Ishant Sharma and understand his thought process. “Ishant’s bowling doesn’t need changes. I just want to find out what he does off the field. I will also try to understand what he is trying to achieve and how he goes about doing it,” said McGrath.
India drew a lot of criticism for their disastrous show in the Test series against England, but McGrath said the comments were a bit harsh. “Everyone was raving about India’s performance after they won at Lord’s and at the end of the series Indian were called the worst team in the world. You can’t take away the performance of England and their bowlers. May be England got strength from the Anderson- Jadeja incident,” he said.
McGrath said India’s bowlers were let down by the erring fielders. “The way India fielded was diabolical. Forcing your bowlers to create 25 chances to get 10 wickets isn’t fair,” he added.
He may hold the opinion that India are a better side in ODIs than Tests, but McGrath said Dhoni & Co would find it difficult to defend their World Cup title down under. “The wickets in Australia offer a lot of bounce and there is also seam movement. Adjusting to the conditions would be tough. I feel Australia and South Africa would fancy their chances,” he said.