England’s frontline pace bowlers Stuart Broad, James Anderson and Chris Woakes run though the same drill every time they play a Test match.
Bowling coach Ottis Gibson uses tape to run the distance from stump-to-stump and the trio cruise in off their respective run ups to arrow balls at a blue disc placed at the optimum length for each specific ground.
And as Broad, who has 352 Test wickets explains, it’s all about alignment, rhythm and familiarity.
“The day before a game a lot of the bowlers like to bowl out in the middle because you can get a feel for the ground,” said the 30-year-old. “Using string from stump-to-stump helps with your alignment, you can get the alignment of your run up and then you know where your balls are pitching.
“Ottis Gibson does research on what length works at a particular ground, with some are a lot fuller, some are a bit shorter. So we put a blue disc down just to make sure we are snapping into the right length and we get a little gauge of whether we are doing that.
“If you miss the disc to the right, why have you done that? Have you fallen away a bit in your action? Let’s try and get it back a bit more centre the next ball.
“It is more of a visual thing to help you feel at home at the ground you are going to play at, so we try and do that all over the world.”
Test ground to village green
Broad believes club cricketers should make use of the same drill, recalling his own league cricket days.
“The drill works for anyone,” he added. “You can grab a bit of string and put it round the stumps to help your alignment.
“It is harder to do all the analytical stuff on which length to bowl but when I played league cricket, you play at the same grounds every year, you know that some grounds you have to bowl a bit fuller, some grounds swing a bit more. So use your experience to gauge where that disc could go on a particular ground.”