Rashid, Washington Sundar can bring purists back to T20
Two young spinners have cornered the limelight in the last couple of days of the IPL. Yes, Rashid Khan for SRH and Washington Sundar for RCB have been simply brilliant!
Who would have thought that spin would be such a game changer when T20 cricket as a concept was born? The most crucial player for any franchise, along with an explosive batsman now is that cheeky spinner.
Rashid Khan got the Man of the match award on Thursday night against Mumbai Indians. His figures were four overs for 16 runs and one wicket. And you know what was most sensational about that spell? His spell had 18 dot balls. That’s three overs of dot balls!
Rashid is an interesting bowler — his leg spin and googly actions are very similar. The disadvantage with this is that that they don’t turn big but a big benefit that he gets out of this in T20 cricket is that the two deliveries are hard to decipher from each other.
This becomes a nightmare for batsmen desperate to hit every ball out of the park.
He has a swift delivery action so all this happens very quickly, making it even more arduous for batsmen.
But what makes Rashid a rare spinner is that even when he is bowling mostly over 90 kmph he gets that ball to turn. I haven’t seen any other spinner do this. Turn is normally the first casualty when a spinner bowls quick. Washington Sundar too is an exception in T20 cricket. He represents the dying breed of finger spinners. With no mystery ball or big variation, he is your classical off spinner who only uses the floater.
His success and impact as a T20 spinner is a mystery really. And the captain does not have to worry about bowling him to right-handers either. Washington holds his own against both right-handers and left-handers. So what makes him tick? My take is his high release point makes it difficult for batsmen to get under the ball when it’s coming from a height downwards all the time on a certain length.
He does not turn it much so the only good option for batsmen is to go straight but not many batsmen take this route when trying to hit an off spinner for a six.
Above all, under Washington’s very simple and calm demeanour lies a very sharp cricket mind that anticipates the batsmen’s intentions. Rashid and Washington are actually bowlers who can bring the purists back to watch T20 cricket.