CSK’s death bowling is work in progress: Bravo

CHENNAI: During his nearly two-decade long distinguished playing career, Dwayne Bravo was renowned for being a ‘death overs’ specialist, especially in T20s. Ever since being appointed the bowling coach of Chennai Super Kings ahead of the current IPL season, the 39-year-old Trinidadian has been entrusted with a huge responsibility of grooming a young bunch of fast bowlers to thrive in a high-octane tournament. Bravo, though, is looking ahead to the challenge with optimism. He shared his valuable insights into the art of bowling at the death in a media interaction recently. Excerpts Is there any secret formula to bowling at the death? There is but I’m not going to share it because the others will follow (laughs). The present bowling group of CSK and bowling consultant Eric Simons are all on the same page trying to get the bowlers to understand the philosophy around death bowling. It’s a work in progress and the individuals have to develop their own style. Our role is to encourage them to stick to the basics.

On the importance of yorkers:

The best option will always be the yorker but it is one of the most difficult to bowl. You have to put in hours of practice. A yorker is the safest option specially at the backend of the innings because it’s difficult for a batter to get runs off it. If you notice, there was a big improvement in our game against Lucknow compared to the first one in terms of getting our yorkers right but it’s still early days in the tournament and I’m sure we will improve going ahead. You have to use your variations depending on the context of the game. Sometimes you don’t have to experiment too much and just rely on yorker and slower ball. I’m a firm believer that the context of the game should dictate which ball to bowl.

On addressing the problem of bowling too many extras:

The bowlers have to take responsibility to cut down on wides and no-balls. We can help them by offering advice but it boils down to the individual to make the necessary adjustments at the right time. It’s something we need to improve on otherwise it would be costly. The margin for error is slim at an event like the IPL.