They come half an hour before the team arrives, as they can’t be late. They warm up on their own, for the team can’t be fiddled with; they bowl their hearts out while the rest go through the motions because there’s a match round the corner. A rather nonchalant ‘well bowled’ means the world to them and that’s what keeps them going till they drop. They hope to catch the coach’s eye if he finds the time after he’s done with the main guys. Then they will be mere spectators while the team goes through its fielding drills or stretching sessions; they must do it themselves, for they are the supporting actors and not the main lead. These are the guys who make practice sessions possible, for no team carries more than a few bowlers in the squad and it’s almost certain that the main guys won’t bowl for long, let alone at full throttle between matches. Welcome to the unknown world of the anonymous ‘Net Bowlers’.

Every team, national or international, relies heavily on these supporting actors to make their sessions possible. But, unfortunately, very few teams understand their importance, let alone make them a part of their set-up. Often they are treated like second-grade citizens with no right to demand any luxuries. And that’s where, I think, teams need to develop compassion. In small places it doesn’t cost them much to commute from their home to the stadium but in places like Delhi and Mumbai, every practice session means a few hundred rupees. But I don’t know of any association that pays these guys to turn up day after day. The obvious question might be: why do they still come? It’s not surprising because it is perhaps their only chance to come close to the big guys. Bowling to the known players in the nets is their only possible break to impress them and perhaps get noticed in the future. It’s a gamble they are willing to take and what makes it worse is that there are always people who sell them the idea that they’re in the mix.

But let me tell you that I haven’t seen any of these ‘net bowlers’ getting picked, if and when the opportunity arises. It’s always the guy from outside, who’s smart enough to understand that bowling in the nets is only tiring and not rewarding, who makes the cut. Ironically, the main cast changes a few times in the same season, but the supporting troupe remains the same.

It may not be a bad idea to ensure that they’re paid for every visit. Every association gets crores from the BCCI to spend on cricket and justifying a few thousand rupees for these kids won’t be too tough.

Essentially a batsman in the traditional mould, Cheteshwar Pujara has also learnt to switch gears and adapt to the demands of the shorter format © AFP

What is tougher to deal with? Your debut match against one of the best teams in the world in front of a packed house, or the knowledge that regardless of your showing in the game, you’d only get one chance, at least for the time being? Just to add to the pressure, you got a ball that kept alarmingly low in the first innings and constantly reminded you of a letdown. You stand at the edge of the cliff; one wrong move and it might just blow up all your dreams. That’s how Cheteshwar Pujara must have felt when he walked on to the field to take guard as India’s No. 3 batsman on the last day of the second Test match against Australia in Bangalore. If there is ever what we call a ‘pressure-cooker situation’ in cricket, that was certainly one of those.

Surely then, the way you embark upon such a situation would inevitably determine the shape your career takes. These situations separate men from boys, and the way Pujara responded showed that he belonged. His feet movement was decisive, his shot selection assured, and above all, the composure with which he played must have calmed a few nerves in the dressing room.

I have seen Pujara grow as a player from close quarters. He’s a batsman in the traditional mould who prefers grinding down the opposition with solid technique and immense patience. His consistent performances were rewarded with further selections till he faced the corporate world of the IPL. He was picked for Kolkata Knight Riders, but was sent home without getting a chance, halfway through the first season. That was when he realised the need to change, quite radically, with the times. No longer was it only about notching up the runs, it was also about being flamboyant and flashy too.

That is when he must have walked the thin line of losing what he had, in pursuit of what he should have. If you try to score quickly in the longer format, there’s a good possibility of sacrificing big runs and if that happens, you’re surely doomed. You may impress a franchise or two with your strike-rate but it is only the big runs that would impress the selectors. But to his credit he took it as a challenge and learned to switch gears. His strike-rate improved appreciably while he continued to score tons. His List A stats were equally impressive as his first-class ones, which led to him being made the captain of the India A team touring England. He not only led the team with success in the shorter format but also returned as the highest run scorer.

While he’s made a good start to his international career, he is most likely to be reduced to being a tourist for some time. Despite his success in the shorter format, he’s unlikely to be picked for ODIs which means that he will have no international exposure till someone else in the Test XI pulls a muscle. That’s not at all encouraging, begging a question to be asked -- if Pujara is good enough to lead India’s second-best team and also scores more runs than everyone else, then why can’t he be considered for the shorter format? I’m not saying that he walks into the full-strength ODI team, but is at least given the right of admission into the one which is going to face the Aussies, which of course is giving a miss to the frontrunners. For a player to keep evolving as a cricketer it is mandatory to throw constant challenges at him and that can only happen if you feature in the playing XI.

Ravindra Jadeja's critics seem to be mixing his T20 failures with his showing in ODIs © Getty Images

“Who should be playing at No.7 for India?” – That question qualifies to be the single-most popular point of debate looming large on everyone’s mind. Cricket pundits, media, blogosphere and discussion forums are thinking aloud while the selectors are keeping a close eye on the contenders. Of course, one doesn’t need rocket science to decode the answer – the player at No. 7 has to be an ‘allrounder’ for it’s too low for a pure batsman and too high for a bowler to bat. So who is an ‘allrounder’? No, he isn’t a ‘jack of all trades and master of none’. Kallis, who’d walk into any team purely as a batsman, and yet deliver with the ball, or Flintoff, who’d be the spearhead of any bowling attack, and yet be able to flash his bat, are the ones who win the title hands down.

Let’s go over the probables to see who fits the bill best - there’s been a lot of debate to bring Irfan Pathan back into the mix. This debate has potential; the guy has shown enough talent and temperament to become a genuine allrounder. With his batting abilities, he could be your ideal No. 7 for he has both the sense to farm the strike and the guts to use the long handle to good effect. Unfortunately though, his bowling has put him off the radar. He seems to have lost a bit of pace and swing lately which means that he must bowl with the new ball and stay away from the death overs. But don’t we already have Praveen Kumar with the same job profile? The Indian team can’t have both Praveen and Irfan in the playing XI for both of them can’t be bowling in tandem with the new ball. More importantly, you can’t expect your spinners to be bowling in the batting Powerplay and the death overs. Irfan may be a better batsman but only three quick bowlers can play in the XI which means Irfan must bowl his quota of 10 overs, which seems difficult in the sub-continent, or so the team management believes.

Since the World Cup is slated for the subcontinent, good thinking says, we would need a spinning allrounder rather than a fast-bowling one.

So now the toss-up is between Yusuf Pathan and Ravindra Jadeja. Ideally the No. 7 batsman should be a big hitter who could hit sixes at ease and going by that criterion Pathan Sr. fits the bill perfectly. And that’s why the selectors put him on trial initially but his inability to hit consistently and more importantly his inability to bowl 7-8 overs on a regular basis cost him his place in the side.

Now the only available and promising option left for India is Jadeja. Jadeja may be the last choice but not necessarily a bad one. The only thing that goes against him is that he’s a grafter and not a big hitter and you’d seldom wish for a grafter at No. 7. But he’s bringing enough to the table to make up for that shortcoming. He’s bowling his quota of 10 overs on a regular basis at a miserly economy of under five runs an over. He also chips in with a wicket or two to add value. And he’s one of the best outfielders with extremely quick legs to cover the ground and a rocket-like throw even from the deep. Though he hasn’t set the world alight with the bat, he still averages in the mid-30s in ODIs which isn’t poor; keeping in mind that No. 7 is the toughest spot to bat in an ODI. His critics seem to be mixing his T20 failures with his showing in ODIs which is not fair on the guy.

I, and presumably the Indian team too, would go with Jadeja for the World Cup. Once they have identified Jadeja as their ideal No. 7, it’s only just to persist with him especially when he’s doing his job just fine.

Aakash's Twitter feed is here http://twitter.com/cricketaakash

Virender Sehwag averages 34 in ODIs compared to 54 in Tests © Getty Images

Sample this - Malinga bowls a barrage of well-directed bouncers, Viru looks right through and refuses to bite. He either ducks or simply moves away from the line almost every single time. Malinga keeps him quiet for a few deliveries but Viru persists and rejects the temptation to go for the kill, instead waits patiently for the ball to pitch in his area of dominance. And just when the moment arrives, he abandons restrain and flings the ball in style. He does so not because he has played a few dot balls but because the ball ought to be hit and he obliges. That’s Virender Sehwag for you in Test cricket.

Change the colour of the ball from red to white, the clothing from white to blue, and Sehwag would not only bite but might also succumb in the process. Viru boasts of scoring a mammoth 7000 runs in both Test and ODI cricket, yet his lack of consistency in the shorter format continues to be a bane. Ironically, though, his batting seems to be tailor-made for the slam-bang shorter format. So, what’s the logic behind such patchy performances in ODIs?

Lets first make sense of what makes Viru tick in the longer format, because it is the exact opposite of this that somewhat explains his instability in the shorter formats. Sehwag’s game is built around hitting boundaries for he’s definitely not one who’d happily rotate strike for a few overs without finding the fence. Regardless of however defensive the fielding captain is, it’s imperative to start with attacking field positions which means all bad balls and good shots reach the fence. Contrary to the popular belief that Sehwag follows the simple formula of seeing-and-hitting, in Test cricket, he not only has a specific plan but also the discipline to follow it to the T.

Delhi had lost an early wicket in an inconsequential Ranji trophy game against minnows Orissa. The track was wet and had plenty in it for the quick bowlers. In came Viru, he danced down the track and played a wild slog, missing the ball by a mile. I, at the other end, went down to reason it out with him. To my utter disbelief he said he’d missed the ball on purpose because the chances of connecting cleanly were minimal. Instead, he wanted the bowler to pitch it short the following delivery. The bowler fell for it, obliged and Viru smashed him for four. That incident, followed by quite a few like it, gave me an insight into Viru’s mind. After all, he doesn’t keep it as simple as it looks, at least not at the planning level.

But an inverse logic is brought into action every time Sehwag goes for an outing in the shorter format. He doesn’t have the same planning in place or the patience to follow it, for he believes that it’s almost mandatory to up the ante all the time. Even if he’s already hit two fours in an over, he believes he must go for the third one. His success in Test cricket lies in choosing the right balls to hit, and not in hitting every single ball, which he tries to do in an ODI. He plays shots like the pull and hook, which don’t come naturally to him. He would take the aerial route not because it was the need of the hour but because that’s what you must do in shorter formats, or so he feels. Little does he realise that if you’re already driving at 150kmph, there’s only so much faster you can go and be safe. If you’re driving in the fifth gear, you must be ready to apply the brakes. And regardless of the format, Sehwag always bats in the fifth gear with the only option of slowing down available to him.

The shots which find the boundary ropes in Test cricket don’t reach the fence in the shorter format due to defensive field placements and that, perhaps, forces him to raise the bar even further. Whatever the reason for his not climbing the summit in the shorter formats, he must find a way out of it. For the average of less than 34 in ODIs doesn’t do justice to the talent this man possesses.

Aakash Chopra's Twitter feed is here: http://twitter.com/cricketaakash

Gary Kirsten has helped Gautam Gambhir correct his problem of falling over © AFP

What is the easiest way of dealing with an out-of-form player? Drop him, send him back to play domestic cricket and wait for him to make amends before drafting him in again. Quite easy. Now, what would be the most difficult way of dealing with the same struggling cricketer? It would be to get to the root cause of the problem, help him rectify it and all this while putting an arm around his shoulder to boost his morale. Because technical glitches won’t take too long to be rectified but shattered confidence might just take an eternity to be restored.

You really don’t need a qualified person to find faults. It’s ridiculously easy to say that X player is a suspect on short-pitched deliveries and Y player can’t swing the ball anymore. But it takes not only a qualified professional but also a really patient and understanding man to rectify these mistakes.

Poor form is seldom the spin-off of one thing or one aspect of the game going wrong. The starting point of the downfall may well be negligible but you get to know its effect only when it snowballs into a much bigger and easily identifiable problem i.e. poor show on the field. For example Sreesanth’s poor bowling form often starts with his non-bowling arm coming down a tad early which eventually leads to his straying in line. The same can be said about Ishant, only that his wrist is often the culprit.

Gauti also had this perennial problem of falling over and hence was susceptible to sharp in-coming deliveries. Gary made those minor, but necessary, adjustments in his stance and head position and the rest is history. It not only changed the fortunes of his career but of the Indian team too. And Gautam is never shy in giving Gary the due credit.

If Gautam’s example spoke about the positive influence of a coach, here’s the exact opposite of that. A bowler, from a respectable Ranji Trophy team, was struggling with the problem of over-stepping. So much so, that the poor guy was bowling every delivery from at least six-eight inches over the popping crease. There were a plethora of coaches supervising his progress, or the lack of it. All that these wise men did was tell him that he was overstepping and that he needed to stop it. They had nothing more to offer to the player. Another bowler, this time on an India A tour, was bowling at least two-three no-balls in an over. To give devil its due, the coach did work with him in-between the matches, but made little headway. In fact he bowled a 15-ball over in the following game. Clearly whatever the coach did was not enough.

Now, a qualified coach would tell you that correcting the simple problem of overstepping is not rocket science and hence should have been rectified easily.

Practice doesn’t make a man perfect, it just makes him permanent. So, God forbid if a player is practicing the wrong technique, he’s just making matters worse for himself. Bowlers who are found guilty of chucking are the prime example of practising the wrong skill. It’s as much their fault as it is of their respective coaches.

The role of a coach is to first identify and then nip the problem in the bud. It’s about time that our state teams, right from the age-group teams, hire professional coaches. After all BCCI is spending millions to conduct regular coaching courses at various levels and it’ll serve its purpose only if the state associations make use of these coaches.

	The tour would have been ideal for someone like Ishant Sharma to get some less pressure cricket under his belt before the Test series in Sri Lanka © Associated Press

Undoubtedly, India A cricket catches my fancy like nothing else, more than even an odd international tournament here and there. In fact, I found myself tracking the scores of the current A team in England more closely as opposed to the tournament in which the seniors were engaged in, in the Emerald Islands. And hence the observations.

In the first game, Yorkshire fielded as many as three teenage debutants in the match against India A. Obviously, Yorkshire didn’t take this game seriously. After all it was a side show for them and perhaps an unnecessary match scheduled by the ECB. India A being the guests could only expect better competition. If the hosts decided to play spoilsport, then so be it.

But what irked me more, was the India A team make-up. A couple of players in the side had got a promotion without ever playing a single first-class game. Apparently these players were picked on the back of their performances for the India Under-19 and IPL cricket. Representing their respective states and playing against the seasoned campaigners in the Ranji Trophy wasn’t considered important enough while fast-tracking them into the big league.

Representing India A is as close as you can get to playing for the country and is perhaps the last litmus test to assess if you’re ready. The possibility of a player donning India colours without having played even state level cricket, is quiet preposterous. What kind of message would these selections send to hundreds of players who’re toiling hard in the domestic circuit? Wouldn’t they rue the fact that they aren’t U-19 anymore? In fact, age-forging is a serious menace in Indian cricket which ought to be dealt with seriously and immediately. A lot of efforts, including conducting medical tests, have been made to eradicate it but in reality, we have made very little headway.

In my opinion, the only way to discourage kids from cheating is to make age-group cricket less important. Success at age-group cricket should only take you to real cricket i.e. first-class cricket and must not become a ticket to the highest level. In the current scenario, such out-of-turn-selections and getting decent money in the IPL, is encouraging players to remain U-19 for as long as they possibly can.

An U-19 cricketer in England, representing his country, would only make it to the second XI of his county. And if he’s really talented, he might make it to the first XI at the most, but definitely nothing beyond that. He wouldn’t even dream of playing for England A in the same season, leave alone playing for them first before playing for the county. This cricketer has no reason to stay U-19 using unfair means. In fact the longer he stays U-19, the longer it might take for him to break into the big league. Also this system ensures that their domestic structure is not devalued. In fact, most countries, except a few in the subcontinent, follow the same structure.

India A should be used as the platform to judge a player’s calibre one last time or for getting the fringe players back into some kind of form. This tour could have been an ideal opportunity for players like Ishant Sharma, RP Singh and Sreesanth to get some less pressure cricket under their belts before the Test series against Sri Lanka.

	The narrow gap between two first-class games can make fast bowlers less effective © Cricinfo Ltd

The strength of our fast bowling department or the lack of it is a serious concern and must be, in my view, addressed at once. The writing has been on the wall for quite some time and two consecutive failures, first in the World T20 and recently in Zimbabwe, just reinforced the gravity of the situation.

A lot of critics felt that one of the major reasons behind not winning a single match in the Super Eights of the World T20 was the absence of an extra quick bowler on seamer-friendly conditions in Barbados. And perhaps, it was an apt assessment. Understandably, not many could either understand or approve this rather baffling decision made by the captain. His lack of faith in a rookie could perhaps be the only reason that somewhat explains the move of not playing a fast bowler. I refuse to believe that he couldn’t assess the pitch conditions accurately.

But why was a rookie picked to play in the World T20 anyway? What happened to the players in whom the selectors had invested their trust in the lead up to the world event? Well, obviously, selectors have lost faith in the Ishants and Munafs of Indian cricket. Point taken! But do we have their replacements ready? If the recently concluded tri-series is anything to go by, we are far from it. The second string of fast bowlers looked far from impressive.

That brings me to the million-dollar question—where are the fast bowlers? One look at the domestic season’s statistics would tell you a completely different story. Eight out of the top ten wicket-takers in the country are fast bowlers. And it has been the case for the last few seasons. So, either the standard of batting is extremely poor in the country or the conditions are helping the quicks. In this case, it is the latter, for the domestic circuit is still producing enough quality batsmen who aren’t found wanting even at the highest level. That leaves us with a simple conclusion - the conditions in India favour the quick bowlers! Yes, that’s what is happening in first-class circuit in India.

There’s a genuine attempt to make sporting tracks by the state associations but unfortunately, leaving grass and making it seamer-friendly is their idea of a sporting track. Since the quality of spin has gone down at domestic level and Indian batsmen are at ease against spin, most teams prefer a seamer-friendly track than a turning pitch.

An ordinary spinner may not survive but an average quick bowler can definitely thrive in India at the domestic level. The SG ball used in first-class cricket, if maintained properly, swings the entire day, which means fast bowlers are never out of action. Bowling longer spells is a good thing but this SG ball adds another dimension to it i.e. bowlers who release the ball are more effective than the ones who hit the deck hard. It’s an open secret that you need to hit the pitch hard to be successful in international cricket unless you swing the ball, like Irfan used to initially. Also, the gap between two first-class games is only three days which leads to two things. One, the bowlers tend to preserve themselves and learn to bowl at a lesser optimum level, say 70% of their total capacity which explains relatively quick bowlers becoming medium pacers in a season. Secondly - the tracks need to be doctored a lot to give them assistance which leads to inflated figures.

Hence domestic tournaments may well be presenting a warped picture of a fast bowler’s performance and hence cannot suffice for an appropriate yardstick to go by while picking one. Then there’s the IPL in which a bowler is tested properly, or so they believe. After all, the pressure of the format and bowling to quality players would separate chalk from cheese. But sadly, that’s not the case. You need to bowl only four overs in two or three spells in a T20 game which is too small a canvas to project the true colors of a player’s temperament and talent. In any case, going for eight an over is par for the course which is almost blasphemous in fifty-over format.

Fast bowling is a physically gruelling job and demands high level of fitness. This is a rare breed which must be protected and nurtured. Identifying your best bowlers from the available options is the first step and then constant mentoring and monitoring is the need of the hour to have a big enough pool to sustain the hectic international calendar.