TO survive for long in international cricket is a task in itself, for it involves both technical skill and physical fitness. To do it while being part of the Australian team is even more difficult, for they play their cricket hard and their team selection is ruthlessly professional. To do it over a hundred Test matches is great. And for a fast bowler to do all that is unprecedented. Glenn McGrath has done just that, completing his century of Tests at Nagpur, and becoming the first Australian paceman to do that. Before him, only Ian Botham, Kapil Dev, Wasim Akram and Courtney Walsh, among the fast bowlers, managed to cross the 100-Test barrier.
As I was writing these lines, I watched him play two hook shots against the Indian quickies, which, I guess, was more about adding to the level of rarity of the occasion, for the world has never seen him do that before. But his first innings figures of 25 miserly overs — 13 of them maiden ones — conceding just 27 runs for his three wickets is surely a strong statement from McGrath that he is far from finished as a frontline fast bowler.
Come to think of it, McGrath is not your conventional fast bowler. He has never been fast in the real, terrorizing sense of the word. Had speed been the only aspect to fast bowling, McGrath would at best have been labelled a trundler. But he has hundred Tests and close to 450 wickets against his name, and is still going strong, which automatically gives him a place among the all-time greats of the game.
Line and length have been the key words in McGrath’s armoury. Generally, it is an attribute that the medium-pacers feel great about, while the fast bowlers enjoy a certain license to go offline in pursuit of pace. What McGrath has achieved and sustained over the years is phenomenal, mixing the mind and approach of a medium-pacer with the killer instinct of a fast bowler. This is easier said than done, I assure you.
The result has been impressive on all counts. It is not just the volume of his wickets; the famed McGrath ability to pin down the best of rival batsmen almost always leaves mental scars among the opponents. So, it has been both quantity and quality of his wickets that need to be taken into account for any real-time assessment of his skill.
Talking of his killer instinct, McGrath surely does not have the pace to terrorize the rivals into submission. This he does by way of putting relentless pressure on or about the off-stump, but his aggressive body language on the bowling crease and in his follow-through more than compensates for whatever he is missing in terms of pace. This is something that has not always made for a pretty sight on a cricketing field. In fact, it has led to some disgusting scenes like what happened in the West Indies in the recent past when McGrath had a fierce finger-waving argument with Ramnaresh Sarwan. It was certainly not the best advertisement for the game. But, over-stepping apart, his aggression, glare and an odd exchange of words on the pitch have together worked well for him.
It is hard to recall any other bowler with a speed of just around 80 miles per hour actually terrorizing the batsmen as much as McGrath has done on a consistent basis for the last decade or so. The target of 500 Test scalps for McGrath, I think, is quite realistic which would be wonderful for a bowler who has never been too fast, but always effective.
TO survive for long in international cricket is a task in itself, for it involves both technical skill and physical fitness. To do it while being part of the Australian team is even more difficult, for they play their cricket hard and their team selection is ruthlessly professional. To do it over a hundred Test matches is great. And for a fast bowler to do all that is unprecedented. Glenn McGrath has done just that, completing his century of Tests at Nagpur, and becoming the first Australian paceman to do that. Before him, only Ian Botham, Kapil Dev, Wasim Akram and Courtney Walsh, among the fast bowlers, managed to cross the 100-Test barrier.
