Karn Sharma looking forward to Australian tour, expects pitches to support him

Karn Sharma

Karn Sharma, with only a couple of ODIs and a lonely T20I appearance to his name sealed a place in the Test squad for the Australia tour, arguably the toughest place to be for a fresh face in international cricket, especially for a spinner. Despite all that, the leggie is looking forward to “give it a rip” in Australia.

"The best way [in Australia] is to try and put more purchase on the ball. Give it a rip and tweak it more," Karn told the Indian Express. "Put some more shoulder on it than usual. Anil bhai [Kumble] was very successful on those pitches. His action was slightly more high-arm than me, and he would get that disconcerting bounce. Even with my lower-arm action, the pitches there will give me bounce.

"Adjusting the line is important too. If the pitch turns a lot, you can pitch it more on off and middle. In Australia, the line has to be more around off stump and just outside," he added.

Having impressed everyone with his IPL exploits alongside Amit Mishra with the Hyderabad franchise, Karn feels that his quick arm action gives him an advantage against batsman, despite being unconventional for a leg-spinner.

"Even though it was slightly unconventional, my coaches always encouraged me to stick with it," he said. "The biggest advantage with my action is, since it's so quick-arm, often the batsman's judgment gets affected by it.

"It takes him quite some time to get used to it and isn't always sure about what delivery is coming at him. Or for that matter, the pace at which it's arriving. For starters, he expects the ball to be flat and not be flighted to any extent. That is where he gets deceived.”

Batsmen get fooled by quick action

The 27-year-old feels that a lot of his wickets have been a resultant of his bowling action.

"The advantage of having a quick-arm action is that you can bowl your variations without any apparent tweak or adjustment at the point of delivery,” he explained.

“Even if there is one, the batsman doesn't get a good look at it. I remember a dismissal two years ago in Hyderabad during a Ranji Trophy game, where the batsman shouldered arms to a googly and was bowled. He was obviously expecting the ball to leave him since it came from a leg break action. It was similar to how I bowled Mahela Jayawardene through the gate two weeks back [in a practice game] at CCI with a googly.”

Shane Warne is an inspiration

The cricketer also concedes that he always wanted to be like Shane Warne and he eventually became a leggie, inspired by the Australian legend’s impressive showings.

"I used to watch him (Warne) bowl a lot on television. And I was always fascinated by how he would turn the ball a lot even on pitches in Australia and England, which hardly have anything in them for spinners," Karn said.

"And the day I took to the field, I just wanted to bowl legspin. Not offspin or seam-up, nothing. Just wanted to do what Warne does."

The Indian spinner will be itching to exhibit his craft on the birthplace of his idol, in case he finds a place in the playing XI.