T20 has changed the way bowlers think: Prasad

A bowler has to bowl a different length than in T20. Wickets in T20 are usually flat, and batsmen look to come on to the front-foot all the time, so you need more of back of length spells. The situation in one-day games is different,” he explains.

With the IPL final on June 1 and India’s departure for Bangladesh scheduled for June 8, Prasad realises there’s not much time for the players to take a break. But he feels that a two-day bowlers’s camp would be perfect. “I would like it that way, a lot of players have been playing under different coaches with varied ideas for almost a month now. It would be nice if we can squeeze in two or three days where we can exchange a few notes.”

Prasad has been calling for more variety in the death overs, since it has been the problem area for Indian cricket for some time now. Happily, T20 seems to have worked. “They’ve been forced to think different. As batsmen have begun backing off outside leg-stump, bowlers have been bowling yorkers on the fourth and fifth stump. Plus, they have come to realise the usefulness of the one-bouncer-per-over rule.”

Prasad says that the next few sets of tours will see different challenges. “We will encounter sub-continental conditions, so may be the swing concept may not work as much. It’s important to rotate our faster bowlers wisely to keep everyone fresh,” he insists.