Recently I watched a young left arm medium pace bowler bowl to a right-hand batter with 7 fielders on the offside and only 2 on the leg side and it immediately reinforced how important the relationship between a bowler and captain is.
The young left arm bowler had taken the new ball and had the nice natural action to swing the ball into right hand batters.
The field set was 3 slips, a gully, a point, a cover and mid off and on the leg side was a mid-wicket and fine leg.
Left arm swing bowlers are so valuable as they ask so many questions of the batters. Is the ball going to swing into my pads or will it hold its line and straighten towards the slips.
If the bowler gets it right, they have LBW and bowled in play as well as a catch to the wicket keeper, slips, gully, or point.
However, the captain needs to give the bowler the confidence of being able to attack the stumps. If they stray just a fraction with only one fielder at mid-wicket in front of square on the leg side, it makes it easier for the batters to score runs.
It may mean the bowler starts concentrating bowling a 5th or 6th stump line which might negate the opportunity to swing the ball. Its not what any team wants for the new ball bowlers.
Personally, I’d have liked to see the captain remove the fielder at cover and put them at mid on and have a straighter mid-wicket and a fine leg.
It makes it a 6 – 3 field and will give the bowler more confidence of being able to pitch the ball up and swing the ball as they have the added protection of a mid-on and mid-wicket to minimise scoring opportunities and keep the pressure on the batter.
As there is now a gap in the field at cover it might encourage the batter to start playing cover drives which is exactly what the left arm bowlers wants because if the batter doesn’t execute the cover drive correctly, a catch behind the wicket may not be too far away.
Also with mid-wicket relatively straight the batter may look to score through square leg which may mean they start playing across the line to balls pitching on off or middle stump and the LBW and bowled is back in play.
It’s very important for the captain to get their field right in supporting their bowlers but it’s also important the captain creates an environment where bowlers have the confidence to speak up about how they’re looking to dismiss the batter and the field settings they’d like.
Communication is the key.