He used to hit batsmen rather than get hit. Jeff Thomson's deliveries at times reached the batsmen before they could even move. Or so the legend goes.
In the modern era, the game seems to have taken a 360-degree turn, with batsmen like Indian captain Virat Kohli hitting bowlers, pacers and spinners, out of the stadium with an ease that amazes the Australian bowling legend. The 68-year-old, who took 255 international wickets, however feels there are ways to tackle the world's top batsmen.
India will be in Australia for a full tour starting later this month, and after the 1-4 drubbing on their last overseas assignment in England, Kohli & Co. will have their task cut out a tough ask of scripting a maiden series win Down Under.
bccl
Thomson, who played 51 Tests for Australia and took 200 Test wickets, is visiting the Odisha capital, Bhubaneswar and was the first sports personality to take the stage and share his thoughts at the inaugural Ekamra Sports Literary festival.
While he spoke at length on the topic 'death of a Test fast bowler', the Australian legend was also peppered with questions on Kohli. The question everyone wanted to ask was - how can bowlers tackle the Indian run machine?
"Until I go out there (and bowl), I won't know" is how Thomson began.
bccl
"He (Kohli) is obviously playing brilliant, but there are ways to tackle top batsmen. I am not saying (for certain) you can control them, but just don't let them score for one or two overs and they may make a mistake," he said.
Kohli recently became the fastest batsman of all time to score 10,000 ODI runs; but the achievement that cricket purists were most proud of were his two Test centuries on the tour of England, as the Indian captain exorcised the ghosts of his dismal run with the bat on his last England tour in 2014.
Kohli scored 593 runs at an average of 59.30 in five Tests in that series.
afp
So, can India put up a great show on their upcoming tour of Australia? "I hope the rest of the team plays as well as him (Kohli) against our bowlers," Thomson said.
India play 4 Tests, 3 ODIs and 3 T20Is on their tour of Australia that begins with the first T20I on November 21.