ICC Men’s T20 World Cup
Playing him like an off-spinner
New Delhi, Feb 24: Does a mystery spinner retain the element of mystery if he is over-exposed at the international level? Well, it is a matter of debate, but it is clear that leading batters are now not just reading him from the hand, but coaches have also devised the code to tackle him upfront.
Setting aside the Pakistan team, who don’t feature in the IPL or play bilateral series against India, two top nations – New Zealand and South Africa – have done extremely well against the Tamil Nadu man.
He has been clobbered for 208 runs across 20 overs in his last five games against them, including Sunday’s T20 World Cup Super Eights fixture against South Africa.
While he got nine wickets, an economy rate of 10.40 is much higher than his career economy rate of 7.11.
So what exactly are players like Finn Allen, Glenn Phillips, Dewald Brevis and David Miller doing right? “For any bowler, you first take away his strength. If it’s googly then you play for or anticipate the googly and adjust from there. It has been the same with Rashid Khan. Everyone is better at playing him (Rashid) or Varun now because they are playing for the googly, the ball that gets most batters out,” former Mumbai batsman Zubin Bharucha, who has worked with a lot of young Indian star batters, shared his observation with PTI.
The Associate nations, however, have found Chakravarthy difficult to decipher unlike the top players, who feature in the IPL and now play him like an off-spinner, who brings the ball back into the right hander.
“The Associate nations are unable to cope because they don’t have a history of facing him. Most other (top) teams will be playing him like an off-spinner who brings the ball into the right-hander.
“And if the ball doesn’t grip like it didn’t the other day, then it becomes that much easier for both left and right handers and a little bit of the mystery goes away,” Bharucha explained.
But it is not just Chakravarthy, as Bharucha believed that Pakistan’s Usman Tariq will also similarly struggle if the wicket is on the flatter side.
“It will be the same for Usman Tariq too. They (mystery spinners) need a little assistance from the pitch for all their different variations to work. Varun, Tariq, as well as Rashid, are high-quality bowlers and batters will struggle against them, but if the surface is absolutely flat, they can also go for some runs.” But Bharucha said that playing Chakravarthy in most of the bilateral games prior to the T20 World Cup was a plan which ideally could have been revisited. (PTI)
