Kamlesh Nagarkoti, the promising kid who played a wonderful role in the Indian U-19 team winning the World Cup in 2018 wants to become the fastest Indian bowler. In that tournament, he regularly bowled in excess of 145KMPH speeds. Alongwith Shivam Mavi and the other bowler whose name I do not seem to recollect, Kamlesh is definitely considered as one of the bowlers to watch for in the future. Probably these bowlers will form the Indian new ball attack in a few years time. Kamlesh is young with loads of cricket ahead of him.
Extreme pace is brilliant
Pace is definitely an asset in cricket. Pace has always mesmerised the watching public and it has always induced a sense of fear on the batsman. Bowlers love to bowl at their fastest if they are capable of. There are so many instances in international cricket where batsmen were actually intimidated by the pace generated by the bowlers and have lost their wickets just out of fear. There was this famous instance, back in 1976, when the then Indian captain, Bishan Singh Bedi declared the innings as closed at 97 for 5 because he was afraid of his bowlers getting seriously injured because of the pace generated by the West Indian bowlers.
A few years ago, Mitchell Johnson bowled with such pace that England’s batsmen did not have an answer to counter Johnson. They promptly went onto lose the series 5-0. On the otherhand, if the bowlers are off the mark, pace will work against them. The ball will easily run to the boundary. Even top edges can go over the boundary. Hence, pace directed perfectly is deadly for the batsman and directed poorly is a problem for the bowlers.
Kamlesh Nagarkoti’s comment
“Yes, I want to become India’s fastest bowler because I know it is difficult to reach those heights so if you are regularly working on it and if it is your dream then you have to work hard that way. You need to work on your routine. So I am working hard and yes I want to become India’s fastest bowler,” Kamlesh Nagarkoti told kkr.in.
Should Kamlesh concentrate on pace?
We have all seen Kamlesh. He is not a well built fellow. He is of average height probably even below average and he does not have the physique of a fast bowler. With such physical features, should he really concentrate on pace? Ofcourse, he can but in the region of 145KMPH range and certainly not more than that. He wants to become India’s fastest bowler which is in the 150KMPH and above range. Srinath, Varun Aaron and a few others have bowled at that pace. Varun has a fast bowler’s physique. Srinath had height. If Kamlesh concentrates on pace all the time, he will miss the important aspect of a bowler’s armoury of moving the ball just a little to catch the batsman’s edge.
More importantly, he risks frequent injury which will make him miss lot of games not to mention the long term effect of such injuries on the body. In that case, India will miss the services of a young fast bowler. This country in which fast bowlers are quite rare, it cannot afford that luxury. Kamlesh would do well to concentrate on bowling at 145 and moving the ball from the correct length. The BCCI must ensure that India does not lose the services of an excellent fast bowler.
Classic case of Shoaib Akhtar
Shoaib Akhtar, one of the fastest bowler the world has ever seen was obsessed with pace. He always wanted to be the fastest bowler in the world. He wanted to touch 100MPH speed and rarely worried about picking up wickets. His case is one of the classic cases. Due to his obsession with pace, he frequently lost his line and used to deliver the ball everywhere. If the ball pitches on a perfect length, he was deadly. Otherwise, he was taken for runs easily. This obsession over pace cost him enormously. He was not only frequently injured and missed lot of games he eventually lost his place in the team.
He should have actually won a lot of games for his country but he wasn’t able to only because of his obsession to bowl quick. As a result, a bowler who should have been remembered as one of the excellent fast bowlers, is not even remembered as someone who contributed enormously towards wins.
Conclusion
Kamlesh must avoid such a fate and forget about bowling at extremely high pace all the time and must aim bowling at good pace, in the 145KMPH range and try to maintain a good line and length and movement of the surface.