A surprise India doesn't produce pacers consistently: Shaun Pollock

Chennai: Former South Africa captain Shaun Pollock doesn't know why India fails to produce express fast bowlers but added that genes are a major factor contributing to it.

"It is something that has fascinated me over the years (why India fails to produce tear-away quicks). Pakistan for example, we just kept playing against people who came up and bowled close to 150 kmph. You had Waqar Younis and Wasim Akram to start off with, and then you had Shoaib Akhtar coming along with Mohammad Sami. Wahab Riaz is now firing up," Pollock was quoted as saying by bcci.tv.

"It is a funny one to understand as to why it happens that Pakistan produces so many fast bowlers and India can't especially when the border is so close between both countries. It is weird to understand why India struggles to get those kinds of bowlers coming through consistently. I don't know if it is just because of the genes or the things that they eat growing up. The difficulty for the people in India is the amount of cricket you play.

"It is no doubt that it is down to genes. Fit muscles, strength and technique obviously play a huge part and your athletic build contributes to it. But there are a lot of aspects that is difficult to work out."

The 42-year-old says India have the likes of Varun Aaron and Umesh Yadav and also produced Javagal Srinath but believes there should be a pool of talent in store.

"India have some guys who can bowl real quick like Varun Aaron and Umesh Yadav. Javagal Srinath was the quickest Indian bowler that I have played against in those days. But it is a surprise that they don't come through more consistently," said the former Proteas pace spearhead.

Speaking about Yadav, Pollock said: "You need to work with him for a good period of time and get into his brain to find out where he feels he is strong and where he feels he is weak. You also need to work on certain days where he would have run in and just felt great and it would have felt that his body was free to get through his action and felt that his timing was good.

"You have to find out all those ingredients of his bowling and discuss it with him and then try and make him more consistent to produce that on a more regular basis. He looks like a strong guy with some real pace. He gets it up to 145 kmph. You have to work out the mindset of the individual."