Using tennis ball instincts, Siddharth Kaul made a killing at the death for Sunrisers Hyderabad

Kapil Dev. Manoj Prabhakar. Shoaib Akhtar. Three fast bowlers, three eras. Kapil was the master of swing, Prabhakar, a wily military medium and Akhtar a lethal toe crusher. While the first two operated till the mid-90s, Akhtar was the most recent of the lot. Picking the best quality of each one of these and putting it to use with perfection could be quite a task.

For Sunrisers Hyderabad seamer Siddarth Kaul, who not only spearheaded Punjab in the domestic circuit, but also carried SRH’s death-bowling burden in the tenth season of the Indian Premier League, these qualities come naturally to him and has now become part of his muscle memory.

‘I just love bowling’

“As a seven-eight year-old, I used to copy the actions of Kapil Dev, Manoj Prabhakar and Shoaib Akhtar in my father’s academy in Gwalior. Though my father tried his best to make me a batsman like my elder brother Uday, but I would just bowl. I never loved batting. Then we shifted to Chandigarh and that was the time when I never thought I would pursue cricket seriously,” said 27-year-old Kaul from Hyderabad.

The tennis ball has had a huge role in shaping fast bowlers. A lot of Pakistani greats have spoken in detail about the benefits of hurling a tennis ball. Due to the light weight of the ball, it develops inner muscles and strengthens ligaments that may not be strengthened by weight training. Kaul noted that the tennis ball matches within their locality not only helped him develop control over his fast bowling but also made him learn a few tricks to mix up his bowling.

“I would fear getting hit in tennis ball cricket and length is the most important factor. So I developed perfect yorkers and would end up mixing up my speed and length. Watching my interest to bowl, it was my mother who insisted I should start training. So I used to go on and off with my brother and simply loved playing in the mohalla. Gully cricket helped in perfecting my yorkers and now I don’t have to think before executing it,” Kaul said.

Death overs specialist

Yorkers have been Kaul’s USP in this edition of the IPL. Though Sunrisers Hyderabad faltered near the finish line in the eliminator against Kolkata Knight Riders, Kaul (16 wickets in 10 matches) emerged as one of the SRH workhorses to look out for in the future. Even though Kaul had to wait for his opportunity, he grabbed it with both hands.

“I never got frustrated. My plan was to keep training well and make sure I bowled really well in the nets. Whenever I would get a chance to play, I will think that this is my last game and I have to go full out. I have to perform for the team without thinking that what benefit I will have at the end,” Kaul added.

SRH skipper David Warner used Kaul during the death overs, which looked like a gamble at first but it paid off. One of the factors could be Kaul’s brilliant domestic season. He took 38 wickets in the Ranji Trophy and followed it up with an eight-wicket haul in the Irani Cup against Gujarat in Mumbai. In that match, Kaul was equally effective with the old ball and emerged as a prospect.

“After a good domestic season, I kept performing with the same intensity in the practice games and the SRH management saw that my execution of plans was going really well. Maybe that prompted them to use me more at the death,” Kaul said. “According to match simulations, I was doing what was demanded of me and also the entire domestic season, I have bowled with the new ball, semi new and old ball. The only difference was the platform, you feel a different pressure in the IPL. Coaches Tom Moody, VVS Laxman and Yuvi paaji helped me with how to deal with such pressure situations. So I never felt that I was doing anything different,” he said.

Still learning

Kaul justified the confidence shown in him. His four-wicket haul against Rising Pune Supergiant and couple of three-wicket hauls against Mumbai Indians and Kings XI Punjab lifted his spirits and Kaul showed that he could also keep the batsmen guessing. But before he could enjoy the fruits of his hard work, he had a blip against RPS, with MS Dhoni thrashing him for 15 runs in the final over.

The Eliminator against Kolkata Knight Riders was another example of how Gambhir never let Kaul employ his plan. He began with a barrage of short pitched deliveries and once he got hit, he had no option but to keep bowling short as Gambhir was ready for a yorker too.

In a 20-over format, it is all about bluffing the opposition. And chances are that the bluffs won’t work all the time. Against fierce competitors in Dhoni and Gambhir, you need to play your bluffs even more carefully. Kaul had bowled the yorker with precision throughout and that was the reason why he never got paddled by any batsman.

Bluff master

“Against Dhoni, I was confident that I had bowled well in the previous games in crunch situations. I thought I had been saving runs at the domestic circuit. So it was my plan to come around the stumps and bowl yorkers outside off-stump or leg. But since I bowled one perfect yorker, Dhoni must have been thinking that what could I be bowling next. Then I bowled another three in the block hole. But in such situations you can’t just keep the batsmen guessing. And sometimes bluffs go wrong. On the last ball, even Dhoni knew that I will again target the block hole so he was ready and hit me for a boundary through cover,” Kaul explained.

While it was just a bad day in office for Kaul, he said that senior India bowler Bhuvneshwar Kumar had a big role in his comeback. “Bhuvi has been of great help. During the RPS game, Bhuvi told me that I should be bowling yorkers to Dhoni outside the off-stump and on some deliveries he asked me to target his legs,” Kaul said. The Punjab pacer later accounted for Dhoni’s wicket as well.

“In other games, Bhuvi told me that the batsmen could charge at me so I should cut down on my pace. Then he would ask me to not bowl a yorker in front of a strong batsman as he could be ready for a yorker, so I should bluff him by bowling a different length and give him a single. I feel that is a big plus point as somebody of Bhuvi’s stature who holds a vast experience tells you to overcome such crunch situations,” Kaul said.

Against KKR, Kaul’s variation in pace foxed Gautam Gambhir. Parthiv Patel too scooped one to long-on. And the best example of Kaul’s knuckle ball came against Delhi Daredevils’ Karun Nair, who had to check his shot. The knuckle ball has been the found of this edition and bowlers such as Mohit Sharma, Zaheer Khan and Kaul himself have been the proponents.

“I have been following my idol Zaheer Khan. He first bowled a knuckle ball during the 2011 World Cup. I was trying to learn but wasn’t able to execute. It is difficult as you have to bowl with bent fingers. The push and nip that you get with straightened fingers is curtailed in this variation while the action remains the same. So it travels slower to the batsman. Though I was bowling it in Punjab but wasn’t confident in [the] IPL. So I practiced hard and then pulled off quite a few in the later stages of the tournament,” Kaul said.

With such a beneficial season, even though Kaul might not be on the selectors’ radar, he certainly promises to be a part of India’s long term plan. His selection in all the major domestic tournaments is a sign that the selectors are keen on grooming him. But when performance goes up, players tend to follow superstition. In Kaul’s case, it is true. The red band you see him wearing while bowling isn’t to enhance his facial aesthetics but superstition.

“My guruji told me to bowl with a red band,” he said. So is it the band that is working for him or his hard work that has made Kaul an indispensible asset of SRH? In T20, it could well be his tennis ball instincts and the ever reliant muscle memory taking over.