A.Hello Gopi. If you bowl fast for 2-3 overs, you obviously have the ability to do so. It sounds to me like you need to get to the gym and do some more fitness work in order to build your stamina up so you can bowl faster for longer.

A.Hello Peter. When you become a professional cricketer, you learn to switch your focus on and off between balls in a game, so it is also quite easy to switch on and off when you’re not playing and training. That helps you concentrate on each match as it comes up. It also helps to not look too far ahead, otherwise you get caught in a trap of looking ahead to a game in a few weeks time and losing your focus for the next match you’re playing.

A.Hello Gopi. Thanks for asking about my ankle, but thankfully I haven’t had much trouble with that for a year or so now. I am working hard in my rehabilitation from knee surgery and I hope to be back playing for Lancashire in late July or August. As for your question about young bowlers and whether they need to work on their fitness more or bowl a lot of overs, I think you need to do both, really. You need a good level of general fitness and strength but also when bowling you use muscles in different ways, so it’s always important you have plenty of overs under your belt.

A.Hello Prasanna. The yorker is a delivery which is not a as easy as it looks and obviously you have to change the point of release of the ball so it leaves your hand slightly earlier than normal. A little tip I got when I was younger was to aim halfway up the stumps, which is something I have always kept in my mind throughout my career.

A.That's a very good question, Liam. I think the best way for you to improve is to watch and learn from what we are seeing in the death overs for Twenty20 and one-day international cricket. If you are not a quick bowler then I wouldn’t recommend the slow bouncer that seems to be in vogue at the moment, but I would definitely recommend you do lots of practice on varying your pace and, of course, the yorker. As for putting a bad performance behind you, it’s very difficult, but try to remember the good days you’ve had and the feelings you had during and after those days. Remember that tomorrow is another day.

A.Hello Kabilan. This is certainly a topical question. There has been a lot of debate about what the IPL is doing to Test and international cricket, but I believe it is having a positive effect. I know from own short experience of playing with Chennai Super Kings that I learnt a lot about the skills and discipline required to succeed at that level. I know not all of those skills are easily-transferable to Test cricket but you can see some of them creeping in already. Bowlers have now perfected slower balls and are bowling more yorkers and players like Kevin Pietersen are improvising more – I think we all remember his reverse pull for four against Murali a few years ago. In my opinion that has to be a good thing because it makes the game all the more exciting

A.Hello Muthiah, Many thanks for your e-mail. To bowl the outswinger, the shiny side of the ball should be on the leg-side as you run into bowl with the seam just tilted towards first slip. As you release the ball, your wrist your try and slide down the shiny side and your follow through with the bowling arm should be through and around your body so you fall away to the off-side. For the inswinger, the reverse is how it should be with the shiny side down the off-side as you run into bowl and the seam tilted towards an imaginary leg-slip. Again, on point of delivery, your wrist and fingers should slip down the shiny side, which pushes the ball into the batsman. Your arm follow through this time should be down the right side of your body and not across your body as with the outswinger. This is a very simplistic few lines on what you should do, but I hope it works for you. All the best, Freddie.

A.Hi Rikki. During the winter months and during time off we mainly spend most of the time doing fitness work, however during the summer series we mainly do technical work or just normal net sessions. It may help if before the bowler delivers, if you have a press forward on your front foot this will keep your weight going forward and hopefully help you play off the front foot.

A.Hi Mitch, I am sorry to hear about your ankle. Despite having problems with my ankle, I really am not in a position to suggest what you should do with the problem. I would recommend that you go and see an ankle specialist. I hope it gets better soon.

A.Hi. If you are a young leg spinner the key is not to be frightened of getting hit for runs, even if you bowl the odd bad ball eventually with age you will develop more consistency.