Fast-bowler Bhuvneshwar Kumar has expressed his desire to perfect the art of bowling yorkers, in order to avoid leaking runs in the death overs, while interacting with reporters on the eve of the Adelaide ODI.
In the absence of pace spearhead Jasprit Bumrah, Kumar was seen bowling with a shoe at the base of the stumps, in order to perfect his control. The 28-year-old cricketer stated that he was used to practising the yorker delivery with shoes for quite a period of time.
“The skills (required to bowl yorkers) are different. I was practising bowling yorkers at the shoes, and I was practising for the end (slog) overs to take wickets or block some runs. This (keeping shoes on the pitch) is something that I have been doing for some time,” he said.
The fast-bowler further highlighted the importance of yorkers in the slog overs, stating that slower or blockhole deliveries work with old balls.
“The skills needed are totally different (with new and old balls). You are trying to swing the new-ball and take wickets. With the old ball, you are looking to bowl yorkers or slower balls. But they are both difficult,” said Kumar.
“When you are bowling with a new-ball, there are only two fielders outside the circle. With the old-ball, batsmen don’t care how many guys are outside the circle,” he added.
However, Kumar stated that practicing yorkers would certainly not be his area of focus in every format of the game, highlighting it’s lack of utility in the longer format.
“I didn’t practice that for almost a month now because in Tests, we hardly needed that. And I didn’t play a match. Going into an ODI or T20I series, you need that (yorker) thing. So I was practising that,” he said.
Source: Zee News