Pakistan Test captain Misbahul Haq believes ball-tampering has become an essential part of exploiting reverse swing and there are methods which help bowlers to roughen up the ball to trouble the batsmen.
Misbah said everyone does it using different methods.
“There are legal methods of taking care of the ball so that is reverse swings like cross-seam bowling, throwing from the boundary on the bounce and shining one side of the ball,” said Misbah. “Whichever team takes care of the ball in a better way is able to exploit more reverse swing. It has become an art, a science now. We should also look at this more carefully so that our bowlers can get this kind of advantage.”
When reminded that reverse swing was an art presented to the world by the Pakistani bowlers, Misbah said his bowlers didn’t have enough cricketing experience and are still learning the art.
“We have to take care of the ball,” he explained. “Nowadays, there is one bowler in every team who bowls cross-seam to roughen up one side of the ball. So, we need to work on this. England have the advantage with experienced bowlers like [James] Anderson and [Stuart] Broad who know how to take care of the ball and exploit reverse swing. Our bowlers have not played much cricket. They are slowly learning this art and it will take time before they master it.”
Moreover, while commenting on the last Test against England at The Oval, Misbah said the hosts do have the momentum but the team was prepared to fight back.
“They have the momentum but we believe we can comeback because this is a do or die Test match for us,” he said. “We have to really play well.”
“It will be difficult but not impossible. We cannot write ourselves off. We played really good in the first match, we were below average in the second but in the third Test we were competitive. There are players in our team, if they contribute, we have a good chance in the last Test at The Oval,” he added.
