Intention is to attack and take wickets: Sandeep Sharma

Sandeep Sharma

Pune, April 19 (IANS) Kings XI Punjab (KXIP) medium-pacer Sandeep Sharma has said that Twenty20 is a format which is harsh on the bowlers and the intention should be to always attack and try to pick up wickets.

Sandeep finished with excellent figures of 4-1-25-4 with an economy rate of 6.25 in an Indian Premier League (IPL) encounter against Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) on Saturday. But despite his commendable bowling efforts, Punjab lost by four wickets.

His four-wicket haul, though, helped him become the second highest wicket-taker in the ongoing tournament with seven scalps.

"T20 is harsh on the bowlers and you get hit for runs, you can't avoid that. You should always attack and try for wickets. When you do that you will be able to bowl a few dot balls too and put the opposition under pressure. I was trying to do that," Sandeep was quoted as saying by iplt20.com on Sunday.

The Punjab-born bowler has been bowling his overs up front this season so far. When asked what has been the reason, he said, "It depends on the captain. He feels that I can take wickets in that phase. The ball was swinging and today there were left-hand batsmen at the crease."

"My natural swing is in-swing and the captain felt I can take Gauti paaji's (Gautam Gambhir) wicket and luckily I got his wicket and the next batsman's wicket too."

Speaking on his experience bowling alongside teammate Australian pacer Mitchell Johnson, Sandeep said, "With him the discussion is more on the mental aspect of bowling, like even if you are getting hit how you should remain focused on the next ball."

"He talks about how you should switch your focus on, what you are going to do next and how to prepare for matches. He has spoken about how to maintain a positive body language regardless of how your day is," the 21-year-old said.

The bowler has become an integral part of the KXIP bowling line-up. When asked how it feels, Sandeep said, "It is a dream come true. We have been seeing the league from a young age and to be part of it and perform makes me very happy."