Top 108 Bowlers Quotes & Sayings - Page 2

The bowlers I respected or feared or rated were not the ones who gave me lip or stared at me or abused me. More the ones who, at any stage of the game, when had they had the ball in hand, they were going to be at me, and they were going to have the skill and the fitness and the ability to be aggressive.

I think it is always a challenge when you go and play abroad. You are competing against the home team, and they know the conditions well. Their fast bowlers always know which length to bowl and also the areas in which they need to bowl.

If it takes me 300 balls to get a 100, then it'll take me 300 balls. That'll also tire the bowlers quite a bit too, so it's a bit of a win-win if that's the case.

The new-ball bowlers usually bowl seven to eight overs before we spinners come into the attack, and the pressure they build on the batsmen with the new ball - they concede not more than 20-25 runs - helps us plan our line of attack as to where to bowl to maintain that pressure.

You see teams buy a lot of batsmen for a lot of money because they are good batsmen. But you also need good bowlers to get them out or contain the runs.

As you go along the way, you learn new things, but my basic game has remained the same. You learn about the mental aspect of the game as in how to disturb the flow of the bowlers. You get matured with experience.

Over the years I have been watching Pakistan when playing against them or with them in county cricket. And they have been brilliant bowlers and batsmen and great individuals.

I try to hit the ball along the ground, especially against fast bowlers. I also like the bat to come down in the right position and check if my body position is correct. If I'm really watching the ball carefully, then automatically I'm in a good position to hit it down the ground.

I'm expecting big things from our bowlers, from Peter Siddle, who plays the enforcer role, Stuart Clark, Mitchell Johnson and Brett Lee when he gets fit again. In batting, there's Phil Hughes, whose already done well for Australia and scored hundreds for Middlesex.

My only problem is the fear that opposition bowlers might go for my fingers and that's why I was scared of the short ball. Now I am struggling with the ball pitching up and swinging away. I just keep nicking that one.

The West Indies team I played for in the 1970s and 80s was truly blessed to have so many brilliant individuals in one group. We had many great fast bowlers but the deadliest was my fellow Antiguan Andy Roberts.

It is a cliche to say that you need to take 20 wickets to win a Test and it is the bowlers who get you the 20 wickets.

When you know that batting will be tough, that the ball might move around and your technique will be tested, you have to make sure that you don't give the bowlers any more advantages.

I remember when I first started to follow cricket, the two guys who I really wanted to watch were Shoaib Akhtar and Brett Lee. They were the quickest bowlers in the world at that time.

We knew that if we had to win the World Cup, the defensive side of the game had to be better, which means bowlers will have to bowl tight and we will have to field better.

Music, for me, is vital. Punjabi, Bollywood, Sufi, RnB... I listen to it all. When I'm not listening to music, you will find me chatting with friends. Off the field, I just let my instincts take over. I certainly don't think about batting, or which bowlers I'm going to face.

I had a .200 lifetime batting average in the major leagues, which tied me with another sports great averaging 200 or better for a ten-year period: Don Carter, one of our top bowlers.

He is a perfectly balanced batsman and knows perfectly well when to attack and when to play defensive cricket. He has developed the ability to treat bowlers all over the world with contempt and can destroy any attack with utmost ease.

In India you pick teams based on pitches, so it's the bowlers who get changed. if it is a turning pitch a fast bowler can't play, and if it is a green pitch, a spinner can't play.

Pick any player of the world. Make him the captain of India. I can assure you that the results will still be the same. MS Dhoni just not lucky enough to have the kind of bowlers that top teams like Australia, South Africa and New Zealand have.

I remember a conversation with James Anderson a few years ago about my skills and that conversation is something I can still recall. He said no two bowlers are the same, the way I bowl my outswinger will be different to the way you bowl yours so bowl to your strengths, keep it simple and don't try to copy another bowler for the sake of it.

What batsmen like me do for fitness is often a bit different to what bowlers like Jimmy Anderson or Stuart Broad do but everyone in the squad has a big focus on core strength. It is really important for batting, bowling and fielding. You need a strong core and spine so your movement isn't restricted out there.

At the end of the day, the bowlers have to get 20 wickets to win a Test match. I'm sure they do have a little bit of brains to get those wickets.

The on-field stuff, setting fields, changing bowlers, that's the easy part. It's making sure all your players are on the same page with what your plans are and what you want from your players and the team. That's the biggest challenge and what you really need to get right if you want your team to be successful.

When you play for Mumbai in the Ranji Trophy, you face the same bowler next year. But when you play in IPL, you face bowlers of different calibre.

Though dozens of siblings have made it to the NFL, it's rare for two brothers to play at an elite level. The Barbers did it. So did the Mannings and Pounceys. The Bennetts, both former Pro Bowlers, belong in this club.

The reason why Indian bowling has done exceptionally well in this World Cup is MS Dhoni. When we wrote them off, he kept supporting them. When they were struggling, only he was standing by his bowlers.

I mean everyone's always spoken about fast bowlers and especially myself as a strike bowler, but I look at myself as somebody who could hold down the runs, you know, over 200 games, I've taken a lot of wickets but I've got a pretty decent economy rate.

Part of the reason I fell in love with cricket was watching fast bowlers. They provide a sense of theatre with dramatic, ferocious spells and that applies as much in one-day cricket as in Tests.

Yes, there are absolutely moments when you're running out of ideas, and you do genuinely feel sorry for the bowlers when you keep asking them to run in again on a flat wicket, when partnerships get away from you, especially at the tail, which is one of the big differences in the modern game.

My father was one of the greatest professional bowlers of all time. Seriously. Billy Hardwick: PBA Hall of Fame, Player of the Year in '63 and '69, and the first winner of the triple crown of bowling, among other things.

I think for a lot of people, bowling is sort of a joke. But I love it, and it means a lot to me, so any chance to help promote it or celebrate it or not make the hackiest jokes - 'Bowlers are like plumbers and they wear the craziest shirts!' - I'm way into.

When you are playing Under-17 or U-19, the captain is of the same age as the rest of us. His knowledge was also as limited as the other players, so there was greater responsibility on the bowlers to understand themselves and their bowling, read the pitch, and set fields accordingly.

My mindset in all three formats, in any situation, is exactly the same. I just want to get myself in, get myself a nice foundation to hopefully attack and dominate the bowlers.

You have to assume as a bowler that the batsman is going to hit every ball that he will face. That's where as a bowler you have to fancy your chances. If he is going to hit you, you can dismiss him. That is the confidence I give to my bowlers.

Whenever you see Indian first class cricket on television, you see only a white wicket in a four-day game. And you have after five overs your spinners bowling from both ends on all four days. So how can you improve your cricket or your fast bowlers?

You so often see bowlers pick out a lovely new ball from the bag at nets and it looks great when it swings in the air and nips off the seam with batsmen playing and missing. But you have to simulate match situations. What about when the ball is 60 overs old, the sun is blazing down, the pitch is flat and there's not a hint of movement?

By the time I made my international debut Tendulkar was already being counted among the best batsmen in the world. Most bowlers knew that his was the crucial wicket in an Indian batting line-up that boasted of many talented batsmen.

I can make a good consultant, I can fine-tune bowlers, give them mental toughness, talk about how to bowl under pressure, how to bowl with the old ball.

When I was a youngster, Praveen Kumar was in the same club as me, and because we are similar bowlers, I learnt a lot from him. We used to have conversations, but not a lot. What was very helpful was observing what he was bowling, the kind of fields he had, and what his thinking was.

Opening the batting in Test cricket, facing up to fast bowlers looking to do their worst with a new, hard ball is incredibly tough. You have to be brave, single-minded and prepared to work very, very hard.

I think what pace bowlers need to do in T20 cricket is not just run up and bowl fast. It's not about brute pace in T20, it's about the variation.

You have to be very pragmatic, because you walk out to bat at the best time to bowl, with a brand new ball, against the best bowlers, who are fresh. And their job is to get you out, so when you fail there's no point beating yourself up.

If they're going to take away a portion of maintaining the ball, there needs to be that even contest between bat and ball, otherwise people are going to stop watching and kids aren't going to want to be bowlers.

Pull and sweep are two shots which can help me score runs outside India. These are two shots that can immediately put pressure back on bowlers.

It was only after I made my Duleep Trophy debut did I think I had a realistic chance to play for India. I scored a double hundred, and I realised that I had the potential to play for my country because I played the best bowlers in the country at that time.

There are certain aspects that cross over from ODIs to Tests. Tactically, they are quite different and you are a lot longer in the game. It is more like a war of attrition and you think tactically as bowlers.

My batting mentality is to see the ball and hit it. I don't know what bowlers see while batting.