Sport

‘Lefties’ — all charm

— Photo: S. Subramanium

TOO HOT TO HANDLE: The Indian batsmen have always been troubled by left-arm seamers. Here Sourav Ganguly is bowled by Sohail Tanvir.

NEW DELHI: ‘Lefties’ add a certain charm to cricket. Whether batsmen or bowlers, the flourish with which they perform adds a tremendous aesthetic to their vocation.

The elegance with which they execute the task is unmistakable. From the world’s greatest all-rounder Sir Garfield Sobers — over 8000 runs, 200 wickets and 100 catches — to record-setting batsmen like Mathew Hayden and Brian Lara, the left-handers have charmed the followers of the game like few others.

The bowlers have not been far behind. From the great Australian fast bowler Alan Davidson to the master of mastery, Wasim Akram, the left-armers have given batsmen sleepless nights in every era of the game.

Sohail Tanvir is an exception of sorts. The debutant left-handed all-rounder has a peculiar, wrong-footed action, most unlike his idol Wasim Akram. Perhaps, this strange-looking action works for him since most right-handed batsmen struggle to gauge the line of his deliveries.

For instance, the way a well-set Rahul Dravid misread the line and found himself bowled by the Rawalpindi medium-pacer suggests that left-armers remain a threat to the best of Indian batsmen.

The sound of disturbed timber broke many a heart at the Kotla as Dravid misread the line after uncharacteristically playing across. The ball held its line and hit the off-stump. It was a huge reward to have foxed an in-form and organised batsman.

In his previous over, Tanvir had bowled Sourav Ganguly off the inside edge but then it was the left-hander who invited trouble by playing away from the body and leaving a huge gap between bat and pad.

Indian batsmen have had a history of an uncomfortable outing against left-arm seamers. Indians have succumbed in the matter of one session to bowlers like Mike Whitney, John Lever, Allan Mullally, Bernard Julian, Bruce Reid and Azeem Hafeez to name a few who troubled them on their first appearances.

The Hindu spoke to Kapil Dev, Yashpal Sharma and Anshuman Gaekwad and the trio offered some interesting observations on this subject.

“In the last 30 years, in our domestic cricket, we never had a major performer among the left-arm medium-pacers. It is only in recent years that we have had a few like Ashish Nehra, Irfan Pathan, R.P. Singh and Zaheer Khan. For the right-handers, it is important to get used to playing the left-armers. If you don’t play them regularly, you can’t pick the line. It is the position of the delivery from the left-armers that is intriguing for the right-handed batsmen,” said Kapil.

Gaekwad gave a different insight. “If a left-arm pace bowler is accurate and the ball is seaming, then the batsman’s initial movement will be on the off-side. This locks the position. This happens only when you don’t pick the line. It takes a little while to adjust once the position is locked.”

Yashpal recalled Sunil Gavaskar’s advice on how to play the left-arm pacemen. “Play as late as you possibly can since you take time to pick the line. I think the best way to play bowlers like Tanvir on this pitch is to play half-push and half-drive, like the way (V.V.S) Laxman has shown,” said Yashpal.

Later, Laxman, too, agreed that it was indeed difficult to get used to Tanvir’s “style of bowling.”

‘Lefties’ are intriguing but welcome, for they bring lot of charm to this fascinating contest between bat and ball.

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