Quotes About Wickets

I mean everyone's always spoken about fast bowlers and especially myself as a strike bowler, but I look at myself as somebody who could hold down the runs, you know, over 200 games, I've taken a lot of wickets but I've got a pretty decent economy rate.

When I made my debut in 1994-95 I bowled big outswingers pretty much every ball, because people had told me you should bowl consistent outties to take wickets.

I was practising with wet rubber balls just to get my reaction right, my hand-eye co-ordination right. Because sometimes wickets are softer, two-paced wickets, it helps to practise with a tennis ball.

What we have learned is that Roland-Jones is a very promising prospect. Because of the way he bowls, he will not blow batsmen away, but is more likely to take wickets through accuracy and building pressure.

The best player I've played with would be Graeme Swann, just because he's proved that regular finger-spinners can take wickets in international cricket for England.

It is a bowler's skill that gets him wickets in Tests.

As bowlers, we don't worry about the wickets, whether they are flat or not.

You can be in India bowling at 90mph and it doesn't matter because the wickets are flat and the batsmen are really good.

I don't like bowling on turning wickets because on turning wickets, most balls would just beat the batsmen. On flat wickets you can plan - when to bowl sliders, when to bowl googly.

I loved playing at Lord's - I ended up with 26 wickets at 11.50 from three Tests there. Maybe the wicket, because of the slope, was perfect for my style of bowling.

It is important as a bowler that you always need to have a presence. If you lose that you lose quite a bit, a big part of your armoury. It comes naturally with me, and at times it is a huge advantage. I don't want to lose it. I want to keep getting wickets.

It doesn't matter which era you play in. Wickets are the only way you can contain. Restricting the batsmen to six runs in the first over may look okay but in the next over they will hammer the other bowler. Giving ten runs and taking a wicket - I'll take that any day.

Trent Bridge, 2013, is my favourite Test. An Ashes opener and England won a thriller by 14 runs. I managed to take ten wickets, which helps.

The wickets in England are very helpful to me.

You need wickets to be brave. When you get wickets, you can try anything. But when you don't, you always hesitate to try a few things because it is not always about giving runs and getting wickets.

Four hundred is a lot. When I was young, I remember Kapil Dev getting it, and it was quite a big thing. An Indian had taken it. I feel honoured and proud that God has given me a chance to reach 400 wickets. It's a big thing for me; I don't know about others.

The first thing that comes to the mind when you are touring South Africa is bouncy wickets. But that is no surety of what kind of pitch you would get in the game.

I just play because I love playing and I try and take as many wickets as I can.

It's runs for batsmen which is the criteria for selection and similarly, it is wickets for bowlers which are important.

If you go for wickets all the time, then you will go for runs as well because you will have to flight the ball and invite the batsmen to hit you.

If you are bowling well and not getting wickets, it's not a big issue. Sometimes I am economical, but not getting enough wickets. But if I am not bowling well and not getting wickets, then it's a disturbing thing.

From a spinner's perspective, in India it was never easy for me to judge where to stand: how far forward, how far back, because on Indian wickets the ball does not carry as much as abroad. That is true of slip fielding in general. I wouldn't say only for spinner - even for a fast bowler, that holds true.

Whatever knuckle ball I have bowled, I wanted batsmen to go after that. That way, you can get wickets, and that's one of the main reasons why I have been successful in power plays.

Gone are the days of just containing through the middle, gone are the days of just soaking up pressure. You've got to be able to take wickets.