Select Dugout experts Kumble and Lara decode Rashid Khan, dissect Kohli and ABD's struggles

Former India captain and leg-spinner Anil Kumble decodes how Sunrisers Hyderabad leggie Rashid Khan goes about bowling his leg-spinners and googlies. At Star Sports Select DugOut, Kumble said that batsmen need to watch out Rashid’s run-up to the point of delivery.

Kumble says, “If you look at the wrist position it is more like a toppy at the time of him delivering. Whereas for the googly he holds the ball like a seamer and that’s the giveaway. But that again is very tight for the batsmen. If you look at the googly, he uses these particular fingers with the support of the middle finger. So, if you look at the grip it is very classical like a leg break bowler for the googly, it’s similar as well. So, these are things for a spinner with which you can play around. Either you hold it with the seam like a fast bowler or across the seam.

The giveaway for the batsmen is probably a couple of steps before he is running in. If you look at the googly it is more like a fast bowler. He loads up like a fast bowler and that’s what the batsmen should be looking out for,” added Kumble.

While Kumble deciphered the art of Rashid Khan’s spin bowling, West Indies legend Brian Lara explained why Virat Kohli and AB de Villiers continuously failed against Rajasthan Royals spinner Shreyas Gopal.

Lara said that every time the two batsmen found themselves in no man’s land, that is when the batsman is not able to reach the pitch of the ball, they continued with the aggressive shot or to say in other words, they felt playing an aggressive shot could be the best option and that was their undoing.

Lara said, “If I cannot get to the pitch of the ball and I am left to no man’s land then I tend to smother the spin and cover the entire ball. What I believe is that Kohli and De Villiers who have been struggling with spin are found in no man’s land and are still playing aggressive shots, crash the gate and you can see de Villiers going to the backfoot and is cramped for space. They get caught and bowled or LBW. They got to use their feet or hang back and smother to tackle this.”

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