New Zealand leg-spinner Ish Sodhi will be seen in a coaching role with Rajasthan Royals in the upcoming IPL 2020. Sodhi had played for the franchise in last season, but will now help out the team’s spinners in the 13th edition of the T20 league which will begin from September 19 in UAE.
Meanwhile, Sodhi cited the impact legendary leg-spinners like Anil Kumble and Shane Warne have had on his career and revealed how as a youngster watching Warne operate got him in awe of the craft, and from there, his learnings were based on watching Warne, Kumble and Stuart MacGill.
“I fell in love with the art of bowling leg-spin while bowling under Deepak Patel. He was my coach when I was in an academy and was somewhere around 12 or 13. I couldn’t really bowl off-spin, so I learned leg-spin under his watch,” Sodhi told Cricket.com.
“Then being part of a generation where YouTube is accessible and I watched videos of Shane Warne and from there my love for leg-spin developed. After that, I started following Anil Kumble, and then Stuart MacGill. Those three during that era were the best and for me watching them as a young leg-spinner was a great inspiration,” he added.
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Ish Sodhi has played 33 ODIs, 17 Tests and 45 T20Is for New Zealand so far.
Sodhi was fortunate enough to get a chance to pick the brains of two of the leggies he grew up watching. He got to interact with Shane Warne during his stint with the Rajasthan Royals from 2018-19. And when New Zealand toured India in the winter of 2016, Sodhi met India’s then-coach Anil Kumble.
“Shane Warne has got the greatest cricketing brain I have come across. He understands the game really well and has a very simple approach. Anil Kumble was great when I spoke to him for about an hour in Kolkata once. Also spoke to him about his battles with Australia and what it was like to bowl in India. Something like changing your lengths and I got some valuable insights,” he said.
“As a spinner, you think you have to hit the same line and length every time but that’s not the case. It was something I learned from him. I also worked a lot with Stuart MacGill for a couple of years. We became really good friends. Great interactions, all of them! The main thing that they all have in common is that they are aggressive and always looking for wickets,” Sodhi signed off.
