“Back it up Sreesanth” – McGrath

Glenn McGrath has advised Indian fast bowler Sreesanth to partner his aggressive talk with more consistent bowling performances. The controversial Sreesanth took 9 wickets in the recent four one-day internationals against the World Champions, but did so expensively and amidst several clashes with Australian players. He averages 27.11 with a startling economy rate of 6.77 in the series in India.

McGrath noted the need for aggression by fast bowlers, but also called for the performance to back up those words. “Giving blokes send-offs or sledging when you talk back I don’t agree with but that’s up to the officials to sort out,” McGrath told the Australia, “At the end of the day you’ve got to be able to back it up. You can talk the talk but if you can’t go out there and perform then you’re not going to be around for very long.”

Sreesanth was rested for the final three ODIs of the recently completed series, but will expectedly be a key member of the India Test team. Stuart MacGill commented to the Sunday Morning Herald that playing in Australia would be a huge Test for the fast bowler. “It’s always easier when you’ve got a lot of support at home to ride your emotions,” he said. And Ricky Ponting also spoke of the difficulties of translating the fiery showing in the limited overs series to the longer format of the game. “They made it pretty clear right at the start of the series they were going to fight fire with fire,” said Ponting, “We know that’s generally not the way they play their cricket. We’ve got a lot of cricket against them in the next few months, so it will be interesting to see just how long that aggressive-natured cricket does last from them.”