This year’s IPL has seen the return of the yorker, one of the most effective dot balls in any format of the game.  When a fast bowler nails the yorker, he more often than not gets a wicket and that is the best dot ball ever. It was so good to see Avesh Khan, who with his natural inslanting deliveries, gets the yorker to perfection and stop the opposition in its tracks and secure a victory that looked unlikely till he got the ball in his hands. Zaheer Khan, the LSG mentor, who usually doesn’t show much emotion was chuffed to bits seeing the way Avesh Khan bowled.

Young quicks need mentors

Last year Avesh Khan was turning out to be pretty expensive with his low full tosses but this year under the guidance of Zaheer he has discovered the yorker to the Lucknow team’s advantage.  It is also good to see Munaf Patel as a bowling coach because he was one of those with raw pace who also out thought the batters.  That period of the early 2000s India had some terrific new ball bowlers and they are the ones who should be turned to, to guide the newer crop of quicks like Avesh, Mohsin Khan, Prasidh Krishna, Arshdeep Singh, Anshul Kamboj to name a few.  Somebody like RP Singh, Praveen Kumar, Irfan Pathan, if he is available from his media commitments, would be able to guide our younger bowlers like Zaheer and Munaf are currently doing.  Praveen Kumar for instance would be absolutely magnificent in teaching the bowlers how to swing the ball both ways. The biggest advantage for these bowlers is that the language that they speak would be pretty much the same that our younger crop of fast bowlers speak and therefore communication will be easy as well as the comfort level.