Fast bowling is all about fitness, precision and technique. The speed will come with practise. The last blog post was an interesting one as it taught us about the grip, our run up and the follow through. Today’s blog, however, will give you everything you need to focus on accuracy as a bowler. Let’s get started.

We hope you liked the last post about the 1-step and the 5-step bowling drills. Moving on to today’s blog, we look at a few more bowling drills that are focused towards accurate bowling. Be it spin bowling or bowling fast, the idea is to stay accurate, cramp the batter for room and most importantly, not give any space for the batter to score runs.

For the first exercise, place 2 cones around the middle and the off stump. Place the cones in such a way that when you bowl, the line should be a little shorter than a back-of-a-length delivery. On the other hand, placing the cones too far away from each other would give the batter ample room to score runs using the cover drive or the square cut. Now, once you release the ball aimed towards these cones, prioritise your follow through.

Slow ball drill

The slow ball is no less important than a super-fast delivery. As a spinner or a medium-pace bowler, it’s important that you learn to experiment. For instance, alternate between bowling a bouncer, a yorker and then a slower ball. However, if you bowl a slow ball which is pitched near the stumps, the batter has the time to score a boundary out of it. Therefore, when you decide to bowl the slow ball, ensure that you shift your length of the delivery by pitching the ball short. This can in fact confuse the batter into committing too early into the stroke.

To practise this drill, place a few cones around 2.5 metres from the batting crease. Complete your follow through, reduce your pace and try hitting these cones for the best results. Aim to pitch the ball shorter than a full-length delivery.

Bouncer drill

Bowling a slow ball or the bouncer takes a lot of effort. Like any other fast ball, to master the bouncer, it’s important to put in that extra work in terms of the run-up and the follow through. Just like the slow ball drill, it’s important to surprise the batter with the bouncer. Mixing a bouncer with a yorker or a full-length delivery can unsettle the batter from the get-go.

For this drill, place two cones – one between the leg and the middle stump, and the other a little wider than the off stump. The most important part about the bouncer is the length of the delivery. Place these cones approximately 7 metres away from the batting crease. Practise to bowl between these cones for the perfect bouncer.

Yorker drill

Especially for a batter, facing a yorker is nothing short of a nightmare. However, trying to bowl every ball like a yorker might make the bowler seem predictable. For instance, if a batter is experienced and reads the line of the yorker early, just by moving down the wicket, a yorker can turn into a low full-toss, a potential scoring opportunity.

As the yorker is one of the most difficult deliveries in fast bowling, bowlers tend to avoid practising mastering the yorker. Even if you’ve got the line and the length wrong, keep working on your craft. Perfection is right around the corner. For this drill, place a cone between the leg stump and the off stump. However, these cones must be inside the batting crease giving an impression that on the first bounce, the ball hits the base of the stumps. Keep practising as bowling it within the batting crease and with pace is hard.

As for the next blog, we dive into fielding drills.