Ravi Bishnoi - The anomalous leg spinner
Bishnoi has more boxes to tick - variation in speed and trajectory, versatility in lines and a more effective leg break. But with one hell of a googly, he has more than enough to build his bowling on
Nicholas Pooran had attempted a cut shot 12 times over the last 3 seasons of the IPL against leg spinners. He managed to put bat to ball every time. He takes a liking to leg spinners. His career T20 strike rate of 152 with a very low dismissal rate makes that evident. But, he was far from his fluent best against his former Punjab team mate Ravi Bishnoi in the recent T20 series. Bishnoi kept a lid on scoring allowing Pooran to score only 36 off the 33 balls he faced. 7 out of the 15 times Pooran attempted a cut shot against Bishnoi, he connected with thin air. Bishnoi troubling left handers wasn't anything new. He had southpaws in a tangle when they tried to cut him in IPL 2021. Only 3 out of the 11 cut shots against him were under control. Let's explore what makes the wiry leg spinner different from the rest.
The deception starts right from Bishnoi's run up. It's nothing like a leg spinner's run up. Bishnoi, in fact, started out as a pacer before he made the switch. The 12 step run up starts with a stutter that doesn't take him far. A brisk walk follows after which he takes off with non bowling arm outstretched. The long, quick, fidgety run up builds up significant momentum as he approaches the crease. With all the hustle, it isn't surprising that his average googly speed is 90kph. In the IPL, only Murugan Ashwin bowls it faster on average. That's a significant part of the job done when you starve batters for time to adjust.
The departure from the norm continues as Bishnoi releases the ball. His head falls to the left and so does the body. The bowling arm is beyond the perpendicular at a 11 o' clock position. All these are significant departures from what's recommended for a leg break. Upright body and a more round arm action with the release at 2 o'clock is ideal. While Bishnoi's release hinders the leg break, it adds venom to his renowned googly. The release forces the ball to the right and hence also aids the left to right deviation of the googly.
To add to Bishnoi's list of anomalies, he also has the widest average release point among leg spinners in the IPL over the past 2 editions. This is not only due to the 11 o' clock release discussed above but also down to how wide he ends up after his delivery stride.
The revolutions on the googly itself is quite high and hence, deviates a lot off the surface. The amount of turn he gets on the googly is next only to Murugan Ashwin in the IPL. The release, the angle as a result and the huge deviation means Bishnoi's googlies end up wider oustide the off stump to LHBs than other leg spinners.
The trajectory is the batter's best friend when it comes to predicting the line and length from a spinner. Bishnoi's combination of wide release and line requires a batter to track the ball over a longer trajectory. This could be one possible explanation of why the southpaws find it difficult to cut Bishnoi.
Though the young leg spinner uses his leg break sparingly, it could well be enough of a factor that adds teeth to his googly. On the rare occasions he bowls them, they are hard to tell apart. With his wide release, the leg breaks if anything straightens a tad after pitching. A closer look at his release suggests he tries to get his arm much more closer to the perpendicular, at about 12 o' clock. This makes his release a little bit more amenable to the leg break. With that being said, the leg break is still very much a work in progress.
What changed in 2021?
Early in his career, Bishnoi's googly would often drift down the leg to RHBs as noted by his coach Pradyot Singh. This technical shortcoming which can partly be attributed to his wider release, resurfaced in 2021 IPL. Bishnoi didn't play the initial few games, ironing this out with Punjab Kings coach, Anil Kumble. They tinkered with the angle of the run up and got him to deliver from closer to the stumps.
They hoped it would cut down the angle to RHBs and stop the googlies from drifting down the leg side. But what panned out in that season was different. Bishnoi's line shifted roughly the same amount to the right as his release point shift. While it didn't solve his problem against RHBs, it made him more effective to LHBs (might well be inadvertent).
Bishnoi's line shifted further wide to LHBs making the slog to the leg side even more challenging. The long trajectory remained in tact and the marginally wider lines made it tougher to cut. This is reflected in the control stats of LHBs while playing the cut. They were in control 78% of the times when they chose to cut in 2020. And that number nosedived to 27% in 2021. The Pooran - Bishnoi dual was a continuation of that pattern.
The shift in line augurs well for Bishnoi when it comes to keeping the ball out of the arc of LHBs and cramping up RHBs for room. These are good defensive options, but the flip side of it is his diminished effectiveness when the batters aren’t trying to take him on. The wide line explains why only 1 out of his 10 LHB wickets in the IPL have come through bowled or LBW. The first step to address this issue has already been taken by shifting his release closer to the stumps in 2021. Bishnoi would hope it would eventually enable him to bowl a stump to stump line when the situation demands.
In an interview to Cricinfo in 2020, Bishnoi notes how he admires Yuzvendra Chahal's slow and wide deliveries. Here he is 2 years later complementing Chahal's slowish leg break with his zipping googly. Bishnoi has more boxes to tick - variation in speed and trajectory, versatility in his lines and a more effective leg break. But with one hell of a googly, he has more than enough to build his bowling on.