Not so long ago, England were obsessed with pace. If you were a fast bowler
and could not get the ball well above 85mph, you did not have a hope of
being selected. With the departure of Duncan Fletcher, that rigid rule was
wisely scrapped, and skilled if less swift bowlers such as Ryan Sidebottom
came into consideration.
But now there is a new mantra - bounce, bounce, bounce - and it has accounted
for the emergence of the steepling Chris Tremlett on cricket’s skyline.
Whether the 25-year-old is nearer to mastering his craft than, say, a raw
fast bowler such as Sajid Mahmood (who began his Test career brightly at
Lord’s last year) is uncertain, but at the moment it does not matter.
With Steve Harmison and Andrew Flintoff sidelined, Tremlett is one of the few
capable of playing the chin-music that sets Indian teeth on edge. He is
riding the wave of fashion.
As most top batsmen will tell you, it is bounce as much as speed that
discomforts them. Bounce drives them back into the crease, denying them the
luxury of stepping out to unleash the front-foot drives that tell the world
who is in charge.
On the back foot, they have to keep their hands high and ride the bounce if
they are to keep those predatory close catchers out of business. Only
confirmed back-foot players such as Alec Stewart prefer the rules of
engagement to be drawn this way, and such batsmen are few and far between.
In theory Tremlett has the raw material to generate terrific bounce. At 6ft
7in, he is three inches taller than Harmison and as tall as any specialist
fast bowler who has played for England. David Larter, who took 37 wickets in
10 Tests in the early 1960s, was also 6ft 7in, while Tony Greig - an
allrounder who mixed bowling of medium-pace with occasional off-spin - stood
half an inch taller than either.
In the past Tremlett did not always make the best of his height because his
left knee collapsed at the point of delivery, but he appears to have
rectified this problem at Lord’s, Michael Holding, a fastidious critic of
fast-bowling technique, said that Tremlett’s action could not be faulted.
His action also bore a remarkable similarity to Harmison bowling at his
best: head high, body tall.
It had been expected that Stuart Broad, who stands 6ft 6in, would take
Harmison’s place, but anecdotal evidence emerged that the Hampshire man had
bowled at least as well as Broad against the Indians at Chelms-ford last
weekend; although Broad claimed more wickets, Tremlett worked over Sourav
Ganguly and twice had Sachin Tendulkar dropped.
As one England insider said yesterday: “With natural attributes like Chris’s,
we’ve got to give it a go. A feeling grew as to what India would not be
comfortable with.”
Ultimately the choice between Tremlett and Broad rested with captain and
coach. Michael Vaughan no doubt recalled the nasty blow he took on the elbow
from Tremlett in the nets before the second Ashes Test in 2005, when the
pace bowler was 12th man in the first four matches of the series. Fletcher
judged that England’s batsmen found Tremlett “maybe even more testing” than
Harmison in the nets that summer.
His supposed ability to touch 90mph seems to have been exaggerated, but, like
many very tall or very fast bowlers, he has the ability to surprise good
players. With his first ball in first-class cricket for Hampshire he
dismissed the adhesive New Zealand opener Mark Richard-son. In his first
one-day international in 2005 he very nearly claimed a hat-trick against
Bangladesh at Trent Bridge.
His potency is clear from a strike-rate of 48.4 balls per wicket in all
first-class matches, which is superior to the strike-rates of all the other
fast bowlers who have represented England in Tests in the past 12 months.
His closest rival, James Anderson, whose strike-rate is 49.1, is a bowler of
a different type altogether, striving for late swing off a full length.
Interestingly, too, Tremlett’s economy rate of 3.3 runs per over is better
than that of Broad (3.6), even though Broad’s accuracy is reckoned to be one
of his main strengths. Now that he has cut his run-up - on the advice of
Shane Warne, his county captain - Tremlett’s control should be better than
ever.
Hitting the right length will be crucial. In his first spell at Lord’s he
tended to pitch too short at the Indians, not forcing them to play enough.
If he is to become a serious menace, he may have to refine his yorker. This
is the delivery that makes the most of batsmen hanging back in the crease,
waiting to have their throats tickled.
Statistically, many tall fast bowlers - among them Harmison and Flintoff - get
about 70% of their wickets from catches (most by fielders close to the
wicket) but that still means they are threatening the stumps a good deal of
the time, if not as frequently as lower-trajectory operators such as Malcolm
Marshall, Waqar Younis and Anderson.
Joel Garner, at 6ft 8in the tallest fast bowler to take 200 Test wickets,
claimed about half of his victims bowled or lbw - an extraordinary
percentage, given that he was releasing the ball from more than 8ft from the
ground. The main reason was his command of one of the best yorkers the game
has seen.
Tremlett’s future may depend on his fitness. Is he to be as durable as Garner
and the 6ft 7in Curtly Ambrose or as fragile as Bruce Reid and Alex Tudor?
The signs are not good. He has suffered serious stresses and strains in his
left foot, ankle, shin and knee. Had his knee not given way, he might have
made his Test debut in Pakistan two years ago.
His success at the highest level may also depend on his nature. Like many
giants, he is a gentle soul who finds that in most situations his sheer size
is enough to command respect. This is not necessarily the case on the
cricket pitch, however, and he will probably have to learn to dislike
batsmen more if he is to get the better of them.
Tremlett has often appeared diffident, most recently in the one-day series in
Australia last winter, but somewhere within, surely, must lie a strong
competitive instinct. This is something that his captains have urged him to
locate. If nothing else, as the grandson and son of professional cricketers,
he ought to feel that he belongs on the stage.
If he can prosper, England could have a formidable - and formidably tall -
pace attack with which to confront the Australians in 2009: Tremlett, Broad,
Harmison and Flintoff. For sheer height, and therefore bounce, there would
have been nothing like it since the great West Indies attacks of the 1980s.
Reaching for the skies: tall bowlers in Test cricket
Why batsmen have no head for height
Extra bounce as much as speed can discomfort the best batsmen n Bounce brings
the batsmen’s gloves into play, with the risk of fending a catch to short
leg or looping one to slip n Batsmen can’t get on to the front foot, thereby
restricting shot selection: there is little chance to drive n Forced on to
the back foot, they are then exposed to the yorker
England’s tallest pacemen
Tony Greig, 6ft 7.5in Charismatic allrounder who led England in 14 of
his 58 Tests
Chris Tremlett 6ft 7in The 25-year-old is 3in taller than Steve
Harmison
David Larter 6ft 7in The Scot took nine wickets on his debut against
Pakistan in 1962 but only played 10 Tests
Jack Durston 6ft 6in Played one Test against the 1921 Australians,
numbered Warwick Armstrong among his five wickets
Bob Willis 6ft 6in 90 Tests and 325 wickets for one of England’s great
bowlers
World’s tallest pacemen
Joel Garner (WI) 6ft 8in
Bruce Reid (Aus) 6ft 8in
Tony Greig (Eng) 6ft 7.5in
Curtly Ambrose (WI) 6ft 7in
David Larter (Eng) 6ft 7in
Jacob Oram (NZ) 6ft 7in
David Larter (Eng) 6ft 7in
Chris Tremlett (Eng) 6ft 7in
England’s current pace attack
Ryan Sidebottom 6ft 4in
James Anderson 6ft 2in
Chris Tremlett 6ft 7in
