Why is Australia the only nation to roll out roads despite fast bowling being our advantage?

[Park cricketer]

My point is more that the stand in captain likely had little impact on the tactics, rather than any minimisation of the tactics that went into it from a coaching perspective. The bowlers could have simply remained disciplined and stuck to the plan set out by the coaches.

This is true. Rahane got all the plaudits from a captaincy perspective, which was deserved as well, but I thought the coaching management was the real force behind the win rather than Rahane.

 

[big_e]

That's all very well but numbers and patterns don't always work. You paint yourself into a corner by not being flexible and not being able to read a game

You need plan A, B and C all worked out in advance, and then a captain with the smarts to read the game as it happens.

But leaving it all in the hands of the on-field captain, who is dealing with fatigue and emotion, is why we end up bouncing the tailenders.

 

[Jimthegreat]

We'll be bowled out for double figures every other innings if we made spicy pitches.

Eventually though we'd learn to bat better on some overseas pitches. We'd be s**t right now but we'd have to learn to adapt.

 

[sdfc]

You need plan A, B and C all worked out in advance, and then a captain with the smarts to read the game as it happens.

But leaving it all in the hands of the on-field captain, who is dealing with fatigue and emotion, is why we end up bouncing the tailenders.

Captains have been running matches for probably 200 years or more. All of a sudden it's too hard.

Paine is just a dreadful on field captain. Keeping doesn't help.

 

[sdfc]

According to Ishant Sharma, Rahane just lets the bowlers set the field and bowl whatever they want to bowl.
Not exactly tactical genius.

‘Bowler’s captain’ pat for Rahane

Rahane has the ability to nicely play the leadership role: Ishant Sharma

www.telegraphindia.com

Communicates with his bowlers. Damning stuff.

I can't remember Rahane chatting any Aussie players.

 

[The Passenger]

But leaving it all in the hands of the on-field captain, who is dealing with fatigue and emotion, is why we end up bouncing the tailenders.

Feels like short pitched bowling too tailender's is very much a pre-planned method we go to. It's been happening for so long now.

Not against it, but gee we overdo it, and it's frustrating.

 

[Richard Pryor]

Feels like short pitched bowling too tailender's is very much a pre-planned method we go to. It's been happening for so long now.

Not against it, but gee we overdo it, and it's frustrating.

I vaguely remember reading something where Lehmann spoke about it explicitly? And said he didn't want anyone who couldn't bowl 140+ regularly in the side. Not sure if I'm just dreaming it up though, as can't find it now.

 

[big_e]

I vaguely remember reading something where Lehmann spoke about it explicitly? And said he didn't want anyone who couldn't bowl 140+ regularly in the side. Not sure if I'm just dreaming it up though, as can't find it now.

No Cookies | Daily Telegraph

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www.dailytelegraph.com.au

March 26, 2014

DARREN Lehmann has warned world cricket’s timid tailenders that Australia’s brutal bombs-away Ashes fast bowling plan will be reprised against every Test nation.

Australia took inspiration from legendary former West Indian bowling attacks when its quicks repeatedly bounced and intimidated the English tailenders during the summer’s 5-0 Ashes whitewash.

It worked so successfully that coach Lehmann says Australia’s quicks would be looking to strike fear into the hearts of every tailender in Test cricket.

“That is coming. Every tailender is going to get it,” coach Lehmann said.

“That’s what we want to do and we want to do it to every team.

“That is my view and I know the captain (Michael Clarke) is very strong on it as well. The bowlers and the bowling coaches have bought into it.”

Australia’s Twenty20 team is currently on a World Cup mission but Lehmann is also looking forward to the next Test battles, with two Tests against Pakistan in the Middle East in October/November and the summer’s home four-Test series against India.

The ‘bounce the tailenders’ plan was conjured especially for the Poms but Lehmann says it can work just as well against every other rival nation.

Australia has an impressive armoury of bowlers with high pace, including Mitchell Johnson, Ryan Harris and James Pattinson.

“That (bouncing the tailenders) was one of the things that once made the West Indies so threatening, and they bowled very fast,” Lehmann said.

“There is not a lot of really fast bowlers out there in the world at the moment and we are lucky enough to have probably six. We have got to make sure that is our strength.”

.....

 

[The Passenger]

I vaguely remember reading something where Lehmann spoke about it explicitly? And said he didn't want anyone who couldn't bowl 140+ regularly in the side. Not sure if I'm just dreaming it up though, as can't find it now.

Yep remember the same article and vibe big_e posted.

I understand the sentiment... quick bowling is intimidating and can't be coached - either someone can bowl fast or they can't and pace is a big asset, no doubt about it.

I think a lot of captains and coaches get worried that if one of their medium pace bowlers who are generally good at getting nagging edges or LBW's jagging back in to the stumps - say Jackson Bird, Stuart Clark or even someone who performed so well for so long like Vernon Philander - are having a rough day and things aren't happening for them, they have no other weapons to turn to. Captain's are always going to be afraid that their star medium pacer has been "worked out".

Whereas someone like Pat Cummins (who's not really express anyway) has a number of different avenues to a wicket. Mitchel Starc and Mitchell Johnson likewise, but frustratingly also had a bountiful of ways to get dispatched to the boundary. Early career Dale Steyn bowling 150+ has even more ways to get a wicket, but interestingly once Steyn slowed down and operated pretty much exclusively around 140 (with the occasional effort ball around 145) there's a strong argument he was an even better bowler. Obviously these guys are still bowling quicker than the guys mentioned earlier, but not always more effectively*.

* (Well Steyn and Cummins will always have the wood over Bird, but Clark and especially Philander had a lot of great days in test cricket)

Obviously you've also got McGrath, Anderson and Pollock who are legendary medium pacers of the modern era but I wanted to compare guys a level or two down from them (or a fair few levels down in the case of Jackson Bird) because the point is - rightly or wrongly - it takes quite a lot of time for a captain/coach to be comfortable and completely trust a medium pacer at the top level.