India leg-spinner Ravi Bishnoi has garnered a lot of criticism for his poor returns in the 2nd India-England T20I, where he ended up conceding 60 runs in his 4 overs. What was even more troublesome is, he bowled a couple of backfoot no-balls, that changed the complexion of the match; his 17th over fetched 29 runs, which enabled the hosts to chase down 191. With calls to drop him growing, former India spinner Murali Kartik has concluded that his run-up was the problem.
Murali Kartik dissects Ravi Bishnoi’s issues
Kartik, in his assessment, further dissected the run-up of Ravi Bishnoi, saying that his semi-circular run-up was a big part of the problem. “I think backfoot no-balls happen because your run-up is like that and your load is like that. Ravi Bishnoi has had some different run-ups over the years. Even during the IPL, he had this sort of a semicircle, you can call it, or a C, whatever you want to call it. That’s the way he runs in to get to a position to bowl,” Kartik told PTI.
He further added that instead of his right hand coming in a perpendicular motion, should be facing the mid-wicket. “Bishnoi’s bowling hand comes in a perpendicular line, very straight. So as a leg-spinner, you have to be slightly away from your ear at the time of release to get the ball to spin.
“So at the time of the load, the back of your right hand should be pointing towards covers and the ball inside the palm should be directed towards mid-wicket. But Bishnoi has his right arm close to the ear because he is primarily a googly bowler, who can also bowl the slider to left-handers.”
Needs to work with spin coach
Again, to increase his issues, switching from red-ball to the white-ball, could have only exaggerated his issues of run-up, giving rise to the semi-circular approach. “The year he played for LSG wasn’t a great year for him and he also played red-ball cricket. In that, he was trying to spin the ball, which meant his arm was away from his right ear. I’ve got video footage of it from the IPL.
“The year before, when he was doing well and had come onto the scene, he had a bit of this semicircular run-up. Not as exaggerated as we have seen in the last game.” Now, Kartik also suggested that he could actually work with the bowling coach Sairaj Bahutule, to overcome his issues with the run-up, also pick things that worked for him earlier.
“The spin coach can impress upon him that this is what you did, show him footage of his old bowling and try to get him back into that space. Whether he can do it in two days depends on the individual and how comfortable he is, but technically it should not be very difficult.”
