Bowlers in cricket are those players who specialise in getting the wickets of batters and decrease the scoring rate. Bowlers need to be extremely fit with a lot of stamina as they bowl at a speed of 80 to 150 km/hr in international cricket.
Ideally, a cricket team of eleven players has five players who are specialist bowlers. Some of them bowl with pace while some spin the ball. Each bowler balls a said number of overs. This depends on which format the match is being played in. In One Day Internationals, a bowler can bowl no more than 10 overs. In T20 international cricket, a bowler cannot bowl more than 4 overs. The toughest of them all is test cricket. Here, there is no limit on the number of overs a bowler can ball.
Irrespective of the format, a bowler never completes his or her share of overs in one go. This is because they have to maintain their body’s strength for the duration of the match and also to avoid the risk of injuries. The manner in which a bowler divides his or her share of overs is called a spell. How a bowler’s spell should be divided in a match is usually a conversation between the captain, bowler and the vice-captain.
In ODIs a bowler may bowl spells of four, four and two overs to complete their quota. In test cricket, the spell usually depends on the manner in which the ball behaves as the match progresses. T20 is the only format where a bowler can complete their quota of overs in one spell.
Maintaing the spell of bowlers is one of the most tactical tasks for a captain. It is the captain’s judgement as to when to utilise which bowler, the side from which a particular bowler is more effective, when the bowler gets tired, and when the bowler has recuperated to bowl a new spell.
The longest spell bowled by a bowler unchanged was by Narendra Hirwani in 1990. The Indian bowled 59 overs without a break against England. The most overs bowled by a bowler in a single test match is by Sonny Ramadhin. The West Indian bowled 129 overs against England in 1957. In the same match, in the second innings, Ramadhin bowled 98 overs, which is a first-class record for most overs bowled in an innings.
