England are bowling reverse swing better than India: Akram

One of the finest exponents of reverse swing, former Pakistan skipper Wasim Akram feels the Indian bowlers have not been able to use the art as well as their English counterparts are, in the ongoing Test series.

"Look at the state of the ball in Calcutta when the two teams were bowling. When India had the ball it was average looking. Nobody was bothering to shine the ball, or take responsibility for keeping it dry.

"When England bowled it was different. One side of the ball was shiny and the other dry," Akram said.

The 46-year-old thought the Indians are not running in hard enough to get the delivery going.

"I think England have realised that you have to sprint in to bowl reverse swing. Compare them both to Ishant and Zaheer. England's bowlers were sprinting.

"You have to put that effort in to bowl reverse swing. Wasim, Waqar (Younis) and Imran (Khan), we reversed it because we ran in hard," he said.

Akram said a pacer should know his ball well in order to bowl reverse swing.
"Learn how to look after the cricket ball itself and also know your ball. The Kookaburra will take 40-50 overs to reverse, the Duke about 30 overs and the SG (which is used in India) will take about 10-15 overs. All these details every bowler should know," he told the 'Daily Telegraph'.

James Anderson and Co, according to Akram, is bowling more like the Pakistan team.
"The way they bowled tells me England will only get better in  this series because they have the knowledge of reverse swing. To me it looked like the Pakistan team were playing out there, it really did.

Akram is especially impressed with spearhead Anderson.
"The skill is phenomenal. James Anderson has got the knack of reverse swing and will only get better. I reckon he is on a par with Dale Steyn.

"Finn is raw and a bit wayward but he has the pace and just needs to spend more time with Mushy (bowling coach Mushtaq Ahmed."