Chahal taking flight lessons from Zampa
Royal Challengers Bangalore leg spinner Yuzvendra Chahal says that he has added a few strings to his bow thanks to his Indian Premier League teammate Adam Zampa.
Chahal is a proven matchwinner in T20I cricket, but he believes he has improved because of the RCB team environment which allows him to bowl at the likes of Virat Kohli and AB de Villiers and interact with fellow leggie Zampa.
Chahal learning from Zampa
Zampa isn’t the biggest turner of the ball, but his variations of flight and pace make him very difficult to take on, and Chahal says the Australian inspired him to bowl quicker googlies.
“We (Zampa and Chahal) are always talking, not only in the nets. I have been observing his bowling style ever since he came into the Australian team. Anyway, I was trying to bowl quicker googlies this IPL along with the slower ones. That gives less chance to the batsman to hit me,” said Chahal.
“If you are bowling leg spin from the fourth or fifth stump, from there you can bowl googly and the batsman think the leg spin is coming so he has to read from my hand only. If they are not reading there will be problems for sure.”
Chahal said that de Villiers and Kohli provide invaluable feedback to bowlers in the RCB squad.
“Being able to bowl to Virat bhaiya and Ab sir also helps. They give me feedback about the right line and length. AB sir has told me to bowl googlies depending on the situation,” he added.
Venues to spinners liking
Chahal is thrilled that RCB play the bulk of their round-robin matches at the larger Dubai and Abu Dhabi grounds.
“It is heavenly playing here. We play half (seven) of our matches at Chinnaswamy but here only three matches in Sharjah (which is also a small ground). With the side boundaries (in Dubai and Abu Dhabi), you can flight a little bit more.
“In small grounds, if the wicket is turning it is hard to put you away. Here the wickets are fine, but with bigger boundaries, batsmen really need to middle you to hit that six. Even a short ball can give you a wicket.
“Dew is a big factor. We are learning slowly how to counter that. It is very humid also so we are sweating a lot more (making it tougher to grip the ball).”
RCB are in Abu Dhabi for their match against the Rajasthan Royals at the Sheikh Zayed Stadium on Saturday 3 October.
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