Even though Rising Pune Supergiants could only end up second from the bottom in the recently concluded IPL, there were plenty of things to cheer about for the newly assembled franchise. The foremost among them was young leg-spinner Adam Zampa’s emergence into the limelight.
Reflecting on his experience with the Pune team, Zampa expressed delight in learning a lot from playing alongside several experienced cricketers. Speaking to cricket.com.au, the 24-year old hailed his skipper MS Dhoni’s calm demeanor and insightful leadership.
Zampa enthused, “Dhoni has been a calming influence on the field and his advice on how to bowl to a particular batsman came handy for me. He has guided me right through the tournament and that has helped my bowling. MS feels that working under Steve Smith (Australian captain) will benefit me further.“
He added, “He's exactly how you'd think he is. Very chilled. Not in terms of not caring, but the way you see him on the field is exactly what he's like off the field as well. I know my role pretty well and I know when to try to defend and when to attack. So, nothing really changes too much for me.”
Also Read: All you need to know about the Rising Pune Supergiants and Aussie Spinner Adam Zampa
The New South Wales-born bowler heaped praise on RPSG Head Coach Stephen Fleming’s astute influence. He asserted, “Fleming is perfect for me as well. He's very relaxed. He tells us to do what you need to do, prepare how you want to prepare and as long as you get the job done on the day. I like playing under him.”
Zampa scalped 12 wickets from five matches at an impressive average of 9.58. However, it was his magical spell of 6/19 against the eventual title winners SRH, which captured the imagination.
The leg-spinner also played down comparisons with the legendary Shane Warne. Zampa affirmed, "Most people who say that probably just see my smooth run up and don’t actually see the ball come out of my hand.”
He elaborated, “There’s only one Shane Warne and there’s probably only ever going to one guy like him who can bowl as many strong leg breaks all day for five days straight. It’s pretty unheard of. My favourite thing to do is to learn off players and bowl more to good players.”
The Australian shared his excitement on bowling to team-mate Kevin Pietersen in the nets. Zampa revealed, “I'm very close with KP (Kevin Pietersen) now, he's great. Bowling to him in the nets is an absolute nightmare. So the more I can bowl to the great players like that, the more I'm going to improve.”
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