Ravi Bishnoi was the leading wicket-taker in the U-19 World Cup in South Africa, fetching 17 scalps in 6 games. At that juncture, in 2020, he credited India A coach Rahul Dravid for his prolific performance.
”Rahul Sir told me that I bowl quicker through the air just like Anil Kumble, so I should focus on my accuracy because if I bowl short or outside the stumps, it could be an easy boundary,” Bishnoi had revealed. “I was advised to bowl stump to stump and make the batsman play all six deliveries. That piece of advice helped me a lot at the World Cup.”
Nine out of Bishnoi’s 17 wickets during the Colts’ campaign were either bowled or LBW. With an unusually long run-up that is a remnant of his pace-bowling salad days, Bishnoi hustled batters into submission to catapult India into the grand finale.
Over the years of progressing to top-flight cricket, the flatter trajectory became his unique selling point, reducing both the judgement and adjustment time for the batters. He was the new kid on the block, so the novelty factor contributed in no small measure to his striking ability.
However, word goes around swiftly in the day and age of video analysis. Bishnoi has been playing in the IPL for four years and has represented India since 2022. Those facing him know by now that he is not a big turner of the ball and his pace is invariably above 90kmph, faster than the average speed of leg spinners. Ascertained as well is the fact that his wrong un’ cuts into the right-hander. Such a mode of operation renders him a slingy off-break, basically, which means a batter can play the line and angle while using the pace to his advantage.
Thus, at present, Bishnoi has little margin for error, and featherbeds bring to the surface his one-dimensionality. While earlier batters stood flummoxed by his brisk roll of the shoulder and ensuing zip, they are increasingly growing equipped to his ton-touching velocity, as evinced by the predisposition of the Sri Lankan batters to score off him square of the wicket.
It didn’t help Bishnoi’s case that the wayward avatar every leg-spinner painstakingly hides chose to make an appearance in the series opener at Palekelle, but the Mendis duo of Kusal and Kamindu showed a clear tendency to work with the pace on offer, so much so that India had to move the traditional sweeper cover to deep point to contain the flow of runs.
Sri Lanka were right in the hunt at 140/1 after 14 overs in a chase of 214. By that time, Bishnoi’s three overs had gone for 28 runs. Although 37 came off his full quota he managed to dismiss Charith Asalanka off the last ball, and therein lay a pearl of wisdom. The relative loop on that delivery forced the Sri Lankan skipper to sweep the ball hard rather than paddle it fine if he harboured ambitions of a boundary. The extra bounce generated as a result of Bishnoi giving the ball air, for a change, produced the fatal top edge.
At that stage it would have been a belated realization anyway, but Bishnoi’s failure to deduce, after having observed Wanindu Hasaranga in the first innings, that the combination of flight and grip proved a handful is disappointing. Yashasvi Jaiswal was stumped off an inch-perfect googly and Hardik Pandya, his eyes lighting up as Hasaranga floated one above the eyeline, miscued a slog only for the skier to fall in no man’s land. He even came close to trapping in front the iffy Rishabh Pant, who was early into the sweep as Hasaranga continued to bowl in the low 80s.
Bishnoi is more Rashid Khan than Yuzvendra Chahal so making an overnight change to his craft was a task but it seemed as if he either didn’t pay enough attention to Hasaranga’s incisive spell or stuck to his fast-and-fizzy ways despite having concrete evidence that the flatter the trajectory the easier it was for strokeplay. There is also the conceivable possibilty of Bishnoi getting the memo but being apprehensive of leaving his comfort zone, which in turn is an issue because one-trick ponies don’t last long at the international level. Pace-varying skill is the need of the hour, for Bishnoi already lacks the edge that a spinner able to turn the ball significantly holds.
The youngster need not look too far for inspiration around technical tweaks. Kuldeep Yadav straightened his run-up to put more body behind the ball and rediscover his mojo. Ravichandran Ashwin keeps rolling to ensure he doesn’t gather any moss. If Bishnoi is not comfortable fine-tuning on his own, there is help available in the form of Sairaj Bahutule, the interim bowling coach for the tour of Sri Lanka. With 630 first-class wickets under his belt and most of them coming on subcontinental tracks, the former leg-spinner is an ideal sounding board to supervise this calibrating endeavour that is essential for Bishnoi’s survival in the hawk-eyed jungle he now inhabits as an India cricketer.
Lest we forget, he represents Lucknow Super Giants in the IPL. Their home ground, the Ekana Stadium, dishes out low and slow pitches which routinely throw up low-scoring slugfests. Hence, there is prior experience of navigating dull decks. It is just about refining those smarts and adding a new string to his bow to safeguard himself against predictability.
