Sandeep Sharma, the Rajasthan Royals seamer, operates in anonymity. He doesn’t own the strapping built of a pace bowler, he has often turned up for unglamorous sides like Punjab Kings, Sunrisers Hyderabad and now Rajasthan Royals. But more often than not he has punched above his weight.
Every time he does well the pundits and fan calls him underrated. “I don’t know. I have never thought about it,” he tells The Indian Express. After a long pause, he adds: “Kabhi kabhi lagta hai mujhe mera due nahi mila jo milna chahiaye tha (Sometimes I feel like I never got the credit I deserved.”
He is not tearing his hair over it: ”But it’s fine. I am not 23-24 anymore. By the end of this tournament, I will turn 31. Few things are just not in your hands,” Sandeep, who has played two T20Is in 2015, adds.
For his terrific five-wicket haul in the first innings, Sandeep Sharma bags the Player of the Match award 🏆
Rajasthan Royals finish Jaipur leg on a high with a comprehensive win 👏👏
Scorecard ▶️ https://t.co/Mb1gd0UfgA#TATAIPL | #RRvMI pic.twitter.com/5wEmcX61RR
— IndianPremierLeague (@IPL) April 22, 2024
Over the years, he has consumed some of the finest batsmen in the world. The honours board reads thus: Virat Kohli (7), Rohit Sharma (5), and Chris Gayle (four). The Jamaican’s strike rate was a modest 103 versus him. His tally of 57 wickets in powerplay is joint-second with Deepak Chahar and Umesh Yadav. Only Bhuvneshwar Kumar (65) has more. On Monday, he captured his maiden five-for too, which included Suryakumar Yadav and Ishan Kishan.
It was a sweet moment of triumph as he had gone unsold in 2023 before Royals picked him as a replacement for the injured Prasidh Krishna. “When I went unsold, it broke me. But at the same time helped me grow as a person. Now I am taking every game as a bonus. I am not taking anything for granted. I am enjoying my game more now,” he says.
A swing bowler touted the next Praveen Kumar after his exploits in the 2012 U-19 World Cup in Australia, the 30-year-old from Patiala kept evolving. At the Sunrisers, he picked up the knuckleball from Bhuvneshwar Kumar; at Royals, he evolved into a death -overs specialist, a role he is really enjoying. ”I was decent at the death but now I feel I have become better,” he points out.
He swears by the the word evolution. “Cricket is a journey, you keep on evolving and learning. You will have to see the patterns, where batters are more comfortable. They are now reading knuckle balls, anticipates well to the wide yorkers and heel yorkers. Itne saare video analysts hai (There are so many video analysts these days). You need to up your game to make the batsman uncomfortable,” he says.
“As a bowler, you will have to explore the unexplored areas. You need to look at which area of the ground he has a lower strike rate. You have to keep thinking,” he adds.
𝗙𝗔𝗡𝗧𝗔𝗦𝗧𝗜𝗖 🖐️
What a comeback for Sandeep Sharma as he picks up a magnificent 5️⃣-wicket haul 👏👏
Recap his entire spell on https://t.co/4n69KTSZN3!
Watch the match LIVE on @JioCinema and @StarSportsIndia 💻📱#TATAIPL | #RRvMI pic.twitter.com/ZUN4dshsbA
— IndianPremierLeague (@IPL) April 22, 2024
A spin in life
Not just from the pacers, he says he learns from the spin trio of R Ashwin, Yuzvendra Chahal and Keshav Maharaj. “I continuously talk to Ash anna and he helps me all the time. Chahal is again the same. I will take another name, Maharaj. He too is a superb thinker of the game. The inputs I receive are amazing. We play 14 games, and if the ideas or tips they share work out in four games, I am helping my team garner eight points,” he says.
He also plans a lot by himself. Like the Suryakumar dismissal. “Flick shot is his strength. I planned to bowl a keg-cutter on the middle and leg stump. He saw the bowl and his natural instinct forced him to flick (but) there was no pace on the ball and he got caught at the long-on. It was my plan luckily it worked.”
It’s all 💗 at the moment in Jaipur!
Sandeep Sharma gets his second and it’s the big one of SKY 😲
Watch the match LIVE on @JioCinema and @StarSportsIndia 💻📱 #TATAIPL | #RRvMI pic.twitter.com/V6tPQo6WDX
— IndianPremierLeague (@IPL) April 22, 2024
The world of bowlers is getting harder by the season. The Impact Player rule has muscled the batsmen, and several big names like Kuldeep Yadav has severely criticised it. But Sandeep looks at it differently. ”T20 was always a spectator sport, right? It was always a batsman’s game. You will have to make the tournament exciting. The crowd wants big sixes, they are not spending money to see good bowling (laughs). They want high-scoring games, fours and sixes. 140 wala game kisi ko maja nahi aata (nobody wants to watch the low-scoring matches),” he says.
He dwells on the importance of viewership. “They watch our game and we get sponsorship because of it. Viewership is important. If batsmen and bowlers are evolving then rules will also evolve. Different challenges will be thrown upon us. The more you crib about it the more it will affect your game. Making rules is not in our control. As a bowler we must stick to our execution,” he says.
Power-hitting challenge
Power-hitting, emblazoned by the likes of Travis Head, Abhishek Sharma, Jos Buttler, Yashasvi Jaiswal and Shivam Dube, is another big challenge. “Hitting ability has gone above the roof. Big reasons are bowling machines and side-arm throw specialists. In our team there are three side arm specialists, who bowls at 150kph. As a batsman, they are facing 150 at the nets and then they will see 130-140kph balls as big as a football,” he says.
He reproduces a Mohammed Siraj line to sum up their toil. “In a recent interview, he had said the bowlers must focus on bowling the good balls. I also feel the same,” he says.
“One must stick to their strength and plan and hope that the batsman will make a mistake or the mishit will not go beyond the boundary ropes. The most important thing is to take care of the controllable stuff. If I am bowling at Head and Abhishek, I will rather focus on my game plan rather than theirs. I will try to bowl good balls. Even after that if you are hit, then accept it as your your fate. In T20, you need to have a big heart,” he says, laughs.
Unlike the popular opinion, he doesn’t think the pitches have gone flat. “They have always been the same. Now the six-hitting abilities have improved and then there is impact player rule, it has given the batsmen an extra amount of freedom,” he details.
“If the likes of Gayle, Suresh Raina, Virender Sehwag, and AB de Villers were still playing, their teams would have crossed the 250-run mark most of the time. For me, Raina was the most difficult batsman to bowl.” he says.
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