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Aushik who?

by Homer

Deliberate on these numbers for a moment

39.1-12-107-7.

Then deliberate on this number

16.

And if that hasn't whetted you appetite, here is Cricinfo

"This was the precursor to the most engaging battle of the day, between Ajinkya Rahane and the 16-year-old left-arm spinner Aushik Srinivas, who taunte and tormented the restless batsman with his loop and flight. Rahane is technically straight and likes to take charge immediately to gain the upper hand against the bowler. Having rolled his wrists to flick Balaji for his first four, Rahane steadily grew confident. Srinivas, who comes to the bowling crease with a lovely action full of rituals, understood his opponent's attacking psyche, and so pulled his length a few inches back and gave the ball the right amount of loop to put a question in the batsman's mind. Thus Rahane became indecisive. On 12 he stepped out and was beaten in the air, but Sushil fumbled collecting the ball and missed an easy stumping opportunity. Srinivas stood there without any emotions."

Wow!

9 comments:

straight point said...

great scouting of talent homer... 7-fer on that flat track is a commendable effort...

Neerav said...

My exact thoughts - I read the Cricinfo piece and then got really excited on seeing the scorecard today. Pray he does not get drafted in the CSK as another dart bowler.

But why blame him - playing IPL would probably be the height of his career. No way he can dream of getting in the test team till we have "you know who"

Homer said...

SP,

It is now that the real test begins for the kid.. How will he handle the heightened expectations- that will make or mar him!

Cheers,

Homer said...

Crow,

Getting into the IPL may not be the worst thing in the world - playing in the pressure cooker of the IPL may actually stand him in good stead.

And it does not take the IPL to screw up a cricketer. From the CI piece today

"The best example to gauge the impact of Srinivas was to compare him to Iqbal Abdulla, Mumbai's second spinner, and a left-arm orthodox one at that. Never in either innings did Abdulla assert himself over the Tamil Nadu batting and even to a layman the reasons were clear: while Srinivas attacked with flight and varying pace, Abdulla mostly darted the ball at a fuller length."

And this is because when Abdulla was apprenticing under Nilesh Kulkarni, Mumbai selectors insisted on him playing in every T20 and ODI tournament there was - whether inter office of age group. In the period where he should have been honing his skills as an orthodox left arm spinner ( and he is quality), Abdulla was practicing bowling darts to contain batsmen.

And at the crunch, as in this game, he fell back on his tried and tested methods. And it showed!

Cheers,

Homer said...

"whether inter office of age group" should read "whether inter office or age group"

Gaurav Sethi said...

Aaah that is a thing of beauty.

Kid bowled no less than 40 overs, the other boy bowled nearly 47; and yeah, for his darts, Abdulla has an economy rate that's 0.5 less - but also 5 wickets less.

Looked at their career stats, (even tho Aushik has played only 6 fc games, and Abdulla 12, the latter's avg and sr are much more . Still very few games to go by.

One thing for Abdulla, he's got his profile pic up; he is with KKR.

Homer said...

NC,

Time for Paddy Shivalkar to put Abdulla through the grind.. Surely that is what a Chief selector is for!

Cheers,

raj said...

ha! You and your classic spinner obsession. I dont blame Abdulla. He knows it is the dart throwers who will eventually flourish in the indian team - Aushik will go the Mishra/Ojha way while Abdulla will 'Singh' his way to success!

Rohit said...

Why isn't he in the under 19 squad? I've never heard of the players in the team and this guy has actually played in the Ranji...