IPL 2016: Murali Vijay admits it's difficult to pick Shivil Kaushik

It seems that the 20-year-old Indian ‘Paul Adams’ Shivil Kaushik will give some torrid time to the batsmen in the upcoming games of the IPL 2016 with his unusual action.

The young Gujarat Lions bowler who picked up 3 wickets in the game against Kings XI Punjab made his debut in the IPL 2016 against Rising Pune Supergiants and he could have got the prize scalp of Steve Smith in that game had he not overstepped.

The Punjab skipper Murali Vijay who top-scored with 55 in the game admitted, “The first three balls, I didn’t understand what was happening”.

He also added, “It was very difficult for me to pick whether it’s going in or coming out. I had done my video analysis before the game and I saw a bit of his bowling, but it was still difficult. Maybe the next time I face him, I will be better equipped to handle him. You’ve definitely got to keep looking at his hand to see what is coming at you.”

However, Shivil’s spell couldn’t save his team from a defeat as Gujarat Lions lost the game to Kings XI Punjab by 23 runs. Batting first, Punjab put up 154 on the board and the target didn’t look that formidable on a track which was batting-friendly. Shivil picked up the key wickets of Shaun Marsh, Glenn Maxwell, and Murali Vijay to peg the Punjab team back in the middle overs. However, the Punjab team bowled exceptionally well to restrict a strong Gujarat batting line-up and thus registered their second win of the season.

‘He is unpredictable’

Talking about Kaushik, Gujarat’s assistant coach Sitanshu Kotak praised the young bowler, “I thought he executed his plans really well. What we planned for him, he got spot on.”

He also had a word of caution for the batters, “Teams which will play him in the future will obviously watch his videos, but to play someone like him with his different action will always make life a little difficult for batsmen because he is unpredictable.”

The unorthodox spinner was picked up by the Gujarat franchise in this year’s auction for his base price of Rs. 10 lakh. Kaushik caught the eye of many talent scouts with that whippy action for the Hubli Tigers in the Karnataka Premier League. Kaushik’s Hubli Tigers coach Anutosh Poll revealed that the reason which forced them to buy Kaushik for the Karnataka Premier League was not just his unorthodox bowling style but the inability of batsmen to pick him. Anutosh recalled an incident when he completely bamboozled Stuart Binny in a game

The young bowler also thanked his team for their support and said, “The team’s really backed me.” He also said, “Against Pune, both teams scored (almost) 200 in the last game. I thought I was unlucky. Edges went for boundaries, but those are the things you can’t control. I’m only worried about what is in my hands, which is to focus and do things that have been successful so far.”

It will be interesting to see how the batters deal with the young spinner who seems to have put them in a spin. Once any batsman starts to read him properly, then it will be a challenge for the youngster to come out with new ideas to counter the batsmen.