While the Indian team management wants to add a spin-bowling coach after the Indian spinners didn’t perform well in the recent England tour, former leg-spinner Laxman Sivaramakrishnan has recently claimed that he is ready to take that challenge till the 2019 ICC Cricket World Cup in England.
Talking about his wish, the 52-year-old told TOI on last Saturday (October 6), “I’d like to help our spinners till the World Cup in the role of spin consultant/coach, if the BCCI approaches me with an offer. The middle overs – from 11 to 40 – is the period when we need to pick up the wickets. If our spinners take five wickets in this period for about 150, they’d have done their job. Otherwise, you’re looking at a potentially dangerous situation, where the opposition’s middle order is set to lunch into a slog in the last 10 overs.”
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When Sivaramakrishnan made his international cricket debut in 1983 at the age of just 17 years and 118 days, he was the youngest Indian cricketer to make international cricket debut (presently, he is third youngest).
In between 1983 and 1987, Sivaramakrishnan played nine Tests and 16 ODIs where he picked up a total of 41 wickets (26 in Tests and 15 in ODIs).
Analysing the Indian spinners’ performances, Sivaramakrishnan believes they are all good but need fine-tuning.
The former Indian spinner elaborated, “Kuldeep Yadav’s balance while delivering the ball needs to improve. His body isn’t synchronized properly, and his arms aren’t rotating in a round manner while delivering the ball. Yuzvendra Chahal tends to drift to the leg and middle, which means the batsmen can look to smash him to mid-wicket, which is likely to be vacant since the two fielders on the on-side are likely to be stationed at deep square leg (for the sweep shot) and long-on.”
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“If he bowls on or outside off stump, the batsmen will be forced to drive him on the off side, where he can have three fielders – two at point, cover, and long off protecting him. His googly will also become more dangerous then – of the batsman misses it, he’s likely to be bowled or LBW.
“Both Chahal and Kuldeep have the conventional leg-break and the googly, but they can add a top-spinner to their repertoire. They also need to be careful to not overuse the googly.”
