There is some science to swing bowling, somebody has taught Arshdeep that: Fanie de Villiers Premium

Fanie de Villiers, a South African cricket legend, overcame apartheid barriers to become a skilled swing bowler.

Fanie de Villiers was 29 when he made his Test debut. He made up for lost time — South Africa had been banned from international cricket because of the government’s apartheid policy — taking 85 wickets in 18 Tests. In the second of those Tests, in January 1994, he claimed 10 wickets to lead South Africa to a historic five-run victory over Australia at Sydney. He was more than an ideal foil to the lightning-quick Allan Donald. He bowled with control, had variations, including a dreaded off-cutter, and was one of the finest exponents of swing. Excerpts from an interview with the articulate de Villiers:

How difficult were those times when you knew you were good enough for international cricket but thought you may never get the chance because of apartheid?

We were in the doldrums for a good 20 years. But one good thing about those days is that we specialised in cricket in South Africa from the likes of Garth Le Roux, Clive Rice, the Pollock brothers... They brought that knowledge back to South Africa. You must remember that to grow cricket, you need access to knowledge. You need access to different ways and methods and the evolution of those methods. They brought all that back to us in South Africa.

You always had the senior professionals that played in England around you. I was in Northern Transvaal and we had the great West Indies fast bowler Sylvester Clarke, and Ezra Moseley as well. I opened the bowling with Sylvester.

Working with the best from around the world helps you grow as a cricketer. [Dennis Lillee and the MRF Pace Foundation have played a key role but] I think the main reason why India is producing so many more quality fast bowlers today than they did before is the IPL. These bowlers get to bowl alongside the top bowlers from Australia, South Africa, England...

You would have loved to play in the IPL, wouldn’t you? You were a dangerous bowler in limited-overs cricket...

Yes, I would. I was good at bowling at the death. I started the slow balls. And I was able to bowl yorkers more than anybody else. You may remember Adrian Kuiper, the big-hitter. I flew down to Cape Town and said to him, ‘Listen, you gotta help me out. I need to know if I need to bowl yorkers on leg.’ So we tried and he hit my yorkers on the leg and stumps.  He hit me everywhere, but outside the off stump, he couldn’t hit me.