Krunal Pandya of Royal Challengers of Bengaluru has received heavy praise from former India wicketkeeper batsman and batting coach Dinesh Karthik. The left-arm spinner and brother of India all-rounder Hardik Pandya, Krunal has reinvented himself over the years.
And that’s the reason he has survived in a very taxing league like the Indian Premier League (IPL). Thanks to his variations and creativity, Krunal at one time even made life difficult for high-quality batsmen like AB de Villiers. Those days, he used to play for Mumbai Indians.
This year, Krunal has been bowling bouncers as a surprise weapon. Batsmen all over the IPL have been left stunned with that, including his own brother Hardik during the MI-RCB game earlier this month.
Karthik was effusive in his praise of Krunal, who he thinks will be remembered for a long time. “Krunal Pandya is a player this game will remember for a long time. He is pushing the boundaries of finger spin and bowling deliveries that weren’t imaginable a few years ago. He is becoming a master at it,” he said.
“He knows when to use his variations to create doubt in the batter’s mind, and more often than not, it delivers results. A lot of credit must go to him for how he is evolving as an all-rounder. IPL is changing the landscape of cricket, and Krunal is doing the same for finger-spin bowling.”
Keep on improving!
Karthik said reinventing yourself was key to surviving in the IPL. “The IPL is constantly raising the bar. Players need to keep reinventing themselves to keep up with how fast the game is moving.”
To that end, data and analytics could come in more than handy. “We use data to understand situations better and try to use it to our advantage. It’s something we are consciously working on as a group,” he said.
On Monday night, RCB are in New Delhi to play Delhi Capitals at the Arun Jaitley Stadium. The Rajat Patidar-led team is second on the points table behind Punjab Kings. The Capitals are, however, in seventh place and are coming into the game on the back of an embarrassing defeat against PBKS, where they couldn’t even defend 264. Be that as it may, they had beaten RCB the last time they met in Bengaluru earlier this month. Tristan Stubbs and David Miller were the architects of that victory.
