I enjoyed the challenge to bowl to the best batsmen: Glenn McGrath

Australia’s legendary pacer Glenn McGrath was one of those bowlers, who made his mark by consistently bowling exceptional line and lengths, which eventually made him the most successful fast bowler in international cricket. He feels that the Indian pace bowling is in the right hands, as the youngsters are stepping up in the international cricket arena.

Australia is currently touring Sri Lanka and they had already lost the Test series 3-0 and the ODI series is going on. He said that the Australian batsmen should emulate Matthew Hayden to dictate his batting style to counter spin. “Hayden is a good example because he didn’t play spin that well and then he developed the sweep shot to combat it and played it very well,” he said.

Australia will tour India later this year and he said that the team needs to get some confidence before the Indian tour. “They’ve got a few One-Dayers left in Sri Lanka at the moment. I know it’s a different team, but probably they’ll get a bit of confidence if they play well there. They’ll need a good Australian summer, play with good confidence, and then come up with a plan to combat spin.’

“The practice matches would give them confidence, but the first Test is very important. If they can play well in it, and get off to a good start, that’ll help. It’s going to be hard work,” he added.

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The 46-year old said that Virat Kohli is up there among the best batsmen in the world right now, but he pointed that it would be interesting to see how he goes about his business once his form slumps.

When asked about bowling to Virat, he said, “I used to love bowling to Sachin Tendulkar, Brian Lara, VVS Laxman and Rahul Dravid, because I enjoyed the challenge to bowl to the best batsmen. Unfortunately, I didn’t get the opportunity to bowl to Virat. It might’ve been a good thing, he might’ve hit me everywhere!”

Fast bowlers in India are getting better:

Speaking about the Indian pace bowlers, he said that the bowling department is getting better with quite a few youngsters coming in. “Ishant has been around for quite some time now. (Bhuvaneshwar) Kumar swings the ball well, Shami has had a bit of success. Then you’ve got the new breed-Bumrah coming through. He’s a bit unusual in the way he bowls.”

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He also pointed out that nowadays India used to leave a bit of grass for the Ranji Trophy matches, which is really good for the pace bowlers. “They’re leaving more grass in the Ranji Trophy. A third of the wickets aren’t too bad to bowl on for the fast bowlers. India is in very good hands with the young fast bowlers coming through. I hope they enjoy having me here and benefit from me being here,” he concluded.