Praveen Kumar exhibited some deadly swing bowling at the Wankhede Stadium, prompting Manoj Prabhakar to label him a magician
Sriram Veera in Mumbai18-Jan-2008
Labelled a magician by Manoj Prabhakar, Praveen Kumar has his eyes set on the ODI series in Australia © Cricinfo Ltd
“He is a magician”. When Manoj Prabhakar, a wonderful practitioner of theart of swing bowling, says that about someone, therecipient must possess some talent. That’s exactly what Praveen Kumar exhibited at the Wankhede Stadium in the Ranji Trophy final.The lanky bowler comes from a family of wrestlers and it shows when hehas a bat in his hand – it’s easier to hit a six than a four, he once said in an interview – but with a ball, especially a shiny one, he uses more brain than brawn. As Aakash Chopra duly realised, trapped in front with the late curling inswinger on 102.”His biggest strength is that he bowls these inswingers fromclose to the stumps,” an impressed Chopra said. “Most of the others bowlthat from wide of the crease and it’s easier for a batsman to play that angle. But when someone does that from close, the swing starts late and the angleis difficult to play.”Without taking anything away from Chopra’s fine knock, the fact that he faced only nine Praveen deliveries in his opening spell on thesecond day and lasted only two today is a tribute to the bowler.Hustling in from a medium-pacer’s run-up, Praveen moves close to the stumps and keepshis wrist cocked up till late. A whipping motion at the point of release allows him to move the ball both ways, with much work coming from the wrist.Ashish Zaidi, Uttar Pradesh’s bowling coach, has been working withPraveen to develop his outswinger. “He has a natural inswinger andwe have both worked hard on his wrist position to get the other one,” Zaidi said. “He hasbecome much more dangerous now.”Prabhakar shot a note of warning though: “He has to increase his pace abit and not lose his swing obviously. Then he can trouble internationalbatsmen.”I faced such a problem in my early days. I used to swing it morebut the batsmen had the time to play me. So I worked on increasing the paceand it paid off. Kumar has to do it. I am not talking about express paceor sacrificing it for swing but a little more – that combination ofpace and swing hurts the batsman.”Zaidi concurred and said Praveen had increased his pace since lastseason. “[In the last three years] he has started to think the batsmen out. He always hadthe ability to swing into the batsmen and has begun to move it the other way now but themost important thing is that he has matured and has started towork out the batsman.”Hustling in from a medium-pacer’s run-up, Kumar moves close to the stumps and keepshis wrist cocked up till late. A whipping motion at the point of release allows him to move the ball both ways, with much work coming from the wristThe left-handed Shikar Dhawan was set up nicely with two away swingersbefore he curled one back in to clean him up. Gautam Gambhir’s ego wasplayed on – a lone man in the covers on the off side saw Gambhir play anexpansive drive off his second ball – and Chopra was done in by thesecond successive inswinger.Asked whether he thinks this performance will push his case for selectionfor the one-day series in Australia, Kumar’s retort was swift: “What case? I have beenperforming consistently over the season. I just want the team to win andhopefully everything will go all right.”The answers are spat out in away as if he doesn’t really care what you think of him. But there is noapparent malice.On Thursday, while batting, he sent the first delivery he faced – a good length ball -soaring over long-on, was dropped off an attempted pull and repeated thatshot to get out. “Lag gaya to jayega hi (if I hit it, it willtravel),” the wrestler from the akhada in Meerut said with a shrug ofa shoulder.It says a lot about his character. Zaidi calls him a mastmaula (free spirit).”He can come across as abrasive at times but he just speaks his mind,doesn’t put up an act or bother about any one. Someone you would like on your side.”
