During a Q&A session with IPL broadcasters Star Sports, former Indian pacer Irfan Pathan shared his ideas on the art of swing bowling. Pathan was known for his incredible ability to swing the new ball. The former Indian cricketer is a member of the panel of experts for the current 16th IPL season.
Irfan Pathan, one of India’s most talented fast bowlers, made a name for himself by having the ability to move the new ball both ways. The gifted left-arm pacer’s impressive hat-trick against Pakistan in Karachi in 2006 put his impressive swing-bowling skills on full display. When a fan asked him which of the inswinger and outswinger was his favorite delivery, he explained the thought process behind it.
“Outswings or inswings? Which one is harder and which is your favorite? Ahan, a supporter, asked the query on Twitter.
“Look, I always wanted to hit the hitters’ pads, so for me, it was inswingers. I found bowling the outswingers quite challenging in the beginning of my career. Irfan responded to the fan’s query by saying, “So I started to bowl cross seam, with the ball straightening after pitching rather than coming into the batsman.
I found it simpler to bowl the inswinger: Pathan, Irfan
The former cricketer went on to elucidate, stating that his side-on movement, which produced counter-rotation, made it extremely difficult for him to bowl the outswingers. He also claimed that his cross-seamed deliveries, which continued with the angle rather than swinging back into the batters like his inswingers did, frequently misled the batters.
The angle was the only thing that fooled the batters; they used to believe it was a massive outswinger. The bowlers’ alignment will determine this. I was able to bowl the inswinger more easily than the outswinger because of my side-on action and little counterrotation, Pathan continued.
