What is a new ball mantra?. To compel batsman play every delivery!.
An opening batsman is responsible for building team’s platform, and at the start of an innings he is not aware how the pitch will behave, and how much the ball will swing. Adding to this, he is unaware of what tactics fielding side will employ, and how their opening bowlers will execute them.
Hence most opening batsmen will take some time to settle down. The time period is marginal, depending on different formats of game, adding pitch condition, and also character of a player.
So it becomes important for an opening bowler to make the best use of new ball, and make him play each delivery. If things are not going in his favor, and has tried all his tricks, he still needs to continue doing what he is doing, because even though a batsman will look comfortable, nevertheless forced to solve one problem after another at the start of an innings, which reduces the success rate of scoring runs, and increases possibility of a wicket.
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List of bowlers opening the innings.
For India
| 2010 | Inns | Wkts | Avg | R/o | St.Rate | Ler x Lsr |
| Ishant | 25 | 56 | 29.39 | 3.59 | 29.39 | 105.79 |
| Zaheer | 20 | 53 | 22.52 | 3.22 | 42.34 | 136.30 |
| Praveen | 11 | 27 | 25.59 | 2.58 | 59.40 | 153.56 |
| Sreesanth | 15 | 18 | 58 | 3.91 | 89.40 | 349.49 |
| Mithun | 6 | 6 | 62 | 4.04 | 92.00 | 368.00 |
List of bowlers opening the innings.
For all countries
| Player | Inns | Wkts | Avg | St.Rate | R/o | Ler x Lsr |
| J Anderson | 34 | 86 | 23.36 | 49.75 | 2.81 | 140.16 |
| D Steyn | 21 | 62 | 21.43 | 40.36 | 3.18 | 128.61 |
| I Sharma | 25 | 56 | 29.39 | 49.12 | 3.58 | 176.35 |
| Z Khan | 20 | 53 | 22.71 | 42.46 | 3.20 | 136.30 |
| M Morkel | 22 | 52 | 25.21 | 49.75 | 3.04 | 151.26 |
| S Broad | 25 | 41 | 30.22 | 61.65 | 2.94 | 181.31 |
| M Amir | 13 | 33 | 22.33 | 45.72 | 2.93 | 134 |
| M Asif | 15 | 33 | 27.36 | 55.10 | 2.97 | 164.18 |
| D Bollinger | 15 | 30 | 27.16 | 47.5 | 3.43 | 163 |
| C Tremlett | 12 | 29 | 25.62 | 49.09 | 3.13 | 153.72 |
A look at India’s opening bowling spell during the ongoing Pataudi series.
1st Test Match, England(1st Innings)
Zaheer Khan and Praveen Kumar opened the bowling, and their spell lasted 14overs(84 balls). England were 23-1. Below is how English openers batted those 14overs.
| Strauss | Indictors | Cook |
| 8 | Runs | 12 |
| 46 | Balls faced | 36 |
| 5 | Singles | 1 |
| 1 | Boundaries | 1 |
| 6 | Maidens | 6 |
| 7 | Scoring shots | 5 |
England(2nd Innings)
Due to injury to Zaheer Khan, Praveen Kumar & Ishant Sharma opened the bowling for India, and their spell lasted 16overs(96balls). England were 34-1. Below is how English openers started their reply after taking a lead of 188runs.
| Strauss | Indictors | Cook |
| 23 | Runs | 1 |
| 52 | Balls faced | 27 |
| 4 | Singles | 1 |
| 3 | Boundaries | 0 |
| 3 | Maidens | 3 |
| 11 | Scoring shots | 1 |
2nd Test Match, England(1st Innings)
Once again India chose to field after winning the toss, and they opened the bowling with Praveen Kumar and Ishant Sharma. Their spell lasted 10overs (60 balls), and England were struggling at 18-1. Below is how it all started.
| Strauss | Indictors | Cook |
| 8 | Runs | 2 |
| 30 | Balls faced | 16 |
| 2 | Singles | 2 |
| 1 | Boundaries | 1 |
| 3 | Maidens | 3 |
| 4 | Scoring shots | 2 |
England(2nd Innings)
India were ahead when England batted again, taking a lead of 67Runs. Once again they opened the bowling with Praveen Kumar and Ishant Sharma, but this they had a short spell of 6overs(36balls). England were 16-1.
| Strauss | Indictors | Cook |
| 3 | Runs | 5 |
| 20 | Balls faced | 11 |
| 3 | Singles | 1 |
| 0 | Boundaries | 1 |
| 2 | Maidens | 0 |
| 3 | Scoring shots | 2 |
3rd Test Match, England(1st Innings)
India batted first, and were bundled out for 224, and made a change to their bowling line up. They employed Sreesanth to open the bowling with Praveen Kumar. Their spell lasted 7overs.
England were comfortably placed at 24-0 after 7overs.
| Strauss | Indictors | Cook |
| 19 | Runs | 5 |
| 24 | Balls faced | 18 |
| 0 | Singles | 1 |
| 4 | Boundaries | 0 |
| 3 | Maidens | 3 |
| 7 | Scoring shots | 3 |
Data processed from Jan 2010 till end of England(1st Inn) 3rd Test, Aug 2011.
