Arshdeep Singh is perhaps India’s most specialist white ball bowler these days. He doesn’t have breakneck pace or crazy swings, but his clever mental work pays off time and time again.
There are always ups and downs. This series saw a particularly bad downer in his home base of Mullanpur this week. They leaked 54 runs in four overs with a relentless wide spread, which was likely the key to South Africa scoring a total of over 200. But with his new-ball heroics at Dharamshala on Sunday, he showed that it takes more than mental resilience to bounce back from those setbacks. With so much margin for error, bowlers need to master their craft and must develop painstaking discipline and tactical acumen.
Proteas skipper Aiden Markram said after the match: “You can have friendly conditions, but at the end of the day the bowler still needs to land the ball in the right area and that’s what (India) did. From ball No. 1.”
Let’s start over and break through!
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And it was Arshdeep who started with a scorching opening over and a formidable new ball spell. He performed a classic left-arm trick from the top of the wicket, testing the off-stump of right-handed Leesa Hendricks. But this plan was a little unusual.
Most left-handed pitchers test the edge with balls starting on the middle or middle-and-off, from angles that take the ball away from the off-stump line. This is the easiest method, but it doesn’t allow you to attack the batter in a straight forward manner. Sometimes he even gets around it with a ball that appears to be shaped in from the outside. It can be malicious, but it’s predictable. Instead, Arshdeep hit the line landing close to leg stump and the ball deflected.
This line is not often bowled by left-handed bowlers for fear of falling into the striking arc of a large heave on the leg side. However, Arshdeep gained confidence and developed the skill to swing the ball out of his hands and weave it off the pitch. This angle forced Hendricks to square up for the first two balls. This plan only works for bowlers with Arshdeep’s refined ability to swing the ball in both directions. On the next delivery, Hendricks played against the line hoping the ball would go out again, but this time he pitched up the middle and the ball swung in sharply, catching him at his feet in front of him.
These strategies in the T20 Smackathon require very precise execution. Slightly betraying your length or line will leave your leg side completely open, allowing you to maximize run-scoring. The fact that it was planned was evident in skipper Suryakumar Yadav’s fielding, with the two fielders who were outside the circle in the first over both on the leg side as protection – deep square and fine leg. But Arshdeep, determined to exorcise the demons of Mullanpur, made few mistakes.
Variations, deep weapons
It’s no surprise that the 26-year-old Punjab pacer has become India’s go-to bowler for T20s, with Jasprit Bumrah’s participation always up in the air due to his workload management plan. He has taken 109 wickets in 71 matches, making him India’s highest wicket-taker in this format. And it’s not just his performance with the new ball or the wickets he aces.
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Arshdeep has deep weapons that he can utilize when handed the ball to protect the run at the death. Whether it’s the ploy of an angled wide yorker, the same one that repeatedly failed Quinton de Kock at Malanpur, leading to a 13-ball wide over, or a slower ball that angles the batsman and makes brute force scoring very difficult.
His explosive comeback on Sunday was no surprise. Arshdeep is no stranger to dealing with setbacks. Back in the 2022 Asia Cup, he faced relentless slander online after missing a routine catch against Pakistan. A lesser player might have failed, but he did it without a fuss.
The dry humor in his public persona belies a deep sense of self-belief. “When I found out I wasn’t going to play in the first leg of the Champions Trophy, I was very bored in my room. So I started a YouTube channel. It turned out to be a blessing in disguise,” he said rather cheekily earlier this year.
He played in a similar manner in Sunday’s Mullanpur incident, telling the broadcaster, “I just tried to put the ball in the right areas and get as much help as possible from the wicket. When you’re playing at this level, there are days when you don’t do what you want to do. That was just a one-off day.”
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India’s budding bowler is expected to play a big role in defending their World Cup title at home in six weeks’ time. He believes that too.
