Crash course in spin bowling & batting in Mumbai for a cricketer from Scotland
Avinash Yadav born in India but now a resident of Scotland plays for Grange Club in Cricket Scotland Eastern Premier league recently visited his family back in Mumbai, India. Since he had some spare time he thought of honing his cricket skills both with bat and ball. Avinash is a left arm orthodox bowler who usually bats in the lower order. His brief to CricketGraph team was to bring more variety in bowling and improve his batting skills to get a chance to play up the order.
Cricketgraph.com aligned 2 coaches for him in Mumbai with the likes of Sandeep Dahad and Rohit Rane. SD to focus on bowling and the mental aspect whereas Rohit Rane stepped in as a specialized batsman coach. A total of 4 sessions were designed for Avinash, 2 each from Sandeep Dahad and Rohit Rane.
Initially, Sandeep Dahad decided to watch him from sidelines and observed his existing skills. Immediately SD observed some technical errors and guided Avinash through basics of spin bowling like grip, the landing, use of non bowling arm. Avinash was made to bowl for hours until the basics were clearly understood and absorbed. SD also emphasised the importance bowling in right areas with a decent amount of flight to deceive the batsman. Together they also worked towards the dreaded carom ball.
Later half of the session was conducted by batting coach, Rohit Rane, who drew the attention towards his front position while batting. “His natural front foot position is a bit awkard and it goes completely cross which limits his stroke play” said Rane. “I advised him few front foot routines which should correct his stance in the long term” Avinash got a chance to bat against a variety of bowling from both pacers and spinner alike.
We spoke to Avinash to find out how the session went. “The entire session was very useful and I can feel a significant difference in both my bowling and batting abilities. Some very basic things were ignored by me in the past and I am hopeful of correcting this with loads of practise. My goal is to play for the Scotland national team and hope these tricks of trade help me reach my goal”.
Cricketgraph team wishes all the very best to this cricketer from Scotland.