South Africa fast bowler Vernon Philander has only managed 10 wickets in his past five tests and former teammate Justin Kemp believes the Nashua Mobile Cape Cobras quick has to emulate the likes of Glenn McGrath and Shaun Pollock who managed to take wickets on every surface.
Kemp feels there is nothing wrong with Philander and that he is slowly learning how to capture wickets on sub-continent surfaces.
“Vernon relies on a bit of nip in the wicket to get reward. He is a master on those type of pitches,” Kemp told SuperSport.com
“On flat wickets, you might want to face Vernon rather than Morné (Morkel), but on wickets with a bit of nip in it, you might prefer to face Morné and not Vernon.
“The flat wickets on the sub-continent were always going to be Vernon’s greatest test. Bowlers like McGrath and Pollock found a way to perform on sub-continent pitches,” said Kemp.
“Glenn almost bore a batsman out (by denying him runs and persisting with a probing line and length over after over on the sub-continent),” added Kemp.
The second test between the Proteas and Sri Lanka is currently on-going in Colombo.
