Former India leg-spinner Laxman Sivaramakrishnan on Tuesday (May 11) explained why the “fearless” young Mumbai Indians (MI) leg-spinner Rahul Chahar was so impressive in the recently suspended Indian Premier League (IPL 2021).
Sivaramakrishnan was highly impressed with Rahul’s “body language” in the IPL 2021, where the Rajasthan-born spinner was the highest wicket-taker among spinners in IPL-14, taking wickets at a strike rate of 15.27 and an economy of 7.21.
He scalped 11 wickets in seven matches for the MI to finish fourth in the wicket-takers list in the IPL 14 before the T20 league got postponed due to the COVOD-19 pandemic earlier this month.
The former spinner believes that Chahar has all the ingredients to be a good leg-spinner while saying his ability to outfox the batters by not allowing them to read him much was the reason behind his success in the IPL 2021. Apart from his wicket-taking ability, the 21-year-old didn’t allow batsmen to play freely.
Sivaramakrishnan wrote in his column on cricket.com: “Chahar was more impressive in his role because people were not able to analyze him that much. Chahar was definitely very gutsy, large-hearted -- all the ingredients that a leg spinner needs -- and more importantly, [he was] not afraid of getting hit. His body language looked good.”
He was disappointed to see the talented spinners like Chinaman bowler Kuldeep Yadav and leg-spinner Yuzvendra Chahal failed to impress with the ball in the IPL 14.
The commentator further explained, “Nothing really pained me more than witnessing the fall of Kuldeep Yadav and Yuzvendra Chahal. The duo was very successful in the early part of their career. Batsmen were not aware of what they were bowling but now they have been found out. There are computer analysts with every team to help batsmen study bowlers.”
Sivaramakrishnan signed off by saying that the spinners need to “keep developing different deliveries” to be successful in their careers at the highest level.
(With IANS Inputs)
