As Simon Jones get fit for the England tour of India at Dennis Lillee’s academy in Chennai, here are some things about his involvement with reverse swing.
1) Jones bowled reverse swing for the first time in Perth in March 2002. It was for the Academy against Western Australia seconds. He came on as third change. It was boomeranging.
2) In test cricket Jones and Flintoff are the only two right-handed bowlers who can significantly reverse-swing the ball both ways
3) Apparently, Imran Khan and Waqar could get the ball to reverse into a right-handed batsman significantly , but they could only shape it away a little.
4) Of the left-arm bowlers Wasim Akram could reverse it significantly both ways.
5) Troy Cooley says: “First you have to get the seam in a vertical position. Once you’ve got the seam in the optimum position, it’s the condition of the ball which determines which way it will go – that and environmental conditions.”
6) Cooley also says: “Jones and Flintoff bowl it at the right speed, too, about 85mph. That’s when the ball ‘trips’ and goes the other way. If the ball gets really rough, you can bring the speed down below 80.”
7) Cooley wonders if reverse-swing is something that spinners can do. As an experiment, Jones has cut his pace down to 50mph and reverse-swung the ball, but only when it has been roughened up beyond the legal limits. It will be interesting to see what Cooley can develop with the Australian bowlers.
8)In India the forthcoming series will be played with SG balls. Jones has not tried these before.
