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Arms outstretched, mouth wide open and yapping, the curls flying backward, Manimaran Siddharth was like a footballer off on a celebratory run after scoring a last-gasp winner. He had just dismissed Virat Kohli for his maiden IPL wicket in RCB’s backyard.
It was his eighth delivery to the star batter. The previous seven balls had yielded a boundary and three singles – all of it in the powerplay. Two of those were fired in at 112.4 kph and 113.5 kph. The ball before the dismissal was at 100.2 kph on length which Kohli rocked back, made room for himself, and cut away for four. Siddharth then tossed it up and went slower through the air, which the RCB opener could only slice to backward point.
A tall left-arm spinner by trade, M Siddharth has a wide range of variations up his sleeve, including a lethal arm ball and a one-finger flicker. He can make his deliveries swing and swerve in the air. While he can also make the ball drift away from the right-hander, it is the one that comes in late and cramps the batter for room that shackled Kohli.
“I actually wanted to bowl like Irfan Pathan [laughs]. But when you think about it, when you want to do certain things in life, they just come out differently. But they do come out. So I feel the arm ball has come like that and I am happy about it. I can’t do it in fast bowling, but it is coming out like this,” M Siddharth said in an exclusive interview with Sportskeeda before IPL 2024.
An otherwise reticent 25-year-old, Siddharth wore a boyish smile and went about speaking at length about his childhood and, of course, his admiration for Irfan Pathan. Growing up in Jakarta, he was introduced to cricket by his father, who played for the Indonesia national team and in the Hong Kong Super Sixes, and would take his two sons to his matches.
“I was a big fan of L Balaji and Irfan Pathan, who were doing well for India at that time. My brother liked L Balaji and, me being a left-armer, I thought I’d go with Irfan Pathan. And I was a really big fan of him. I got myself an RNS bat after watching him use it. I used to chuck back then; I couldn’t bowl with a straight arm. But my brother helped me out,” he revealed.
The two brothers used to attend summer camps in Chennai during their vacation. But in 2006, they permanently shifted to start formal coaching.
“One of the coaches at the academy wasn’t impressed with my fast bowling and advised me to try out spin. I didn’t like it at first. But I got five wickets in an Under-12 game as a nine-year-old, and I didn’t look back since,” the soft-spoken Siddharth recalled.
He got his breakthrough when the Chepauk Super Gillies signed him for TNPL 2018. He received his cap in their opening match itself and castled Ruby Trichy Warriors’ Baba Indrajith for his first victim. He scalped only four wickets from three matches in that edition, but it set the ball rolling. He played all but one game of the subsequent season as CSG won their second title.
Three months later, he was representing Tamil Nadu in the 2019/20 Syed Mushtaq Ali T20. After sitting out the first seven matches, he made his debut against Mumbai in Surat. And it was a dream debut. Taking the new ball, he took out Suryakumar Yadav, Prithvi Shaw, Shreyas Iyer and Siddhesh Lad to return figures of 4 for 16 from four overs.
“I was pleasantly surprised. It took a while for me to realise it,” Siddharth exclaimed.
In the very next game versus Punjab, he logged 3 for 9 from four overs, this time pocketing Mandeep Singh, Anmolpreet Singh and Harpreet Brar.
He was wreaking havoc with the new ball.
“It was Dinesh Karthik who had asked me to bowl in the powerplay on my debut. I had never bowled in the powerplay before. But it gave me a lot of confidence and that’s how I started opening the bowling,” he explained.
He has opened the bowling in 16 out of 37 innings for Tamil Nadu across formats. Below is the breakup:
He’s become the designated new-ball bowler in the TNPL. Even for the Lucknow Super Giants, he has bowled all five overs inside the powerplay.
"You get only one chance in life" - M Siddharth
All slides end up in the rough sand. 2019 was a breakout year for M Siddharth – he sizzled in the Mushtaq Ali with 12 wickets from just five matches.
But his next appearance would come only in the final of the next edition. After again warming the bench for seven games, he rocked Baroda in the summit clash with 4 for 20 as Tamil Nadu won the T20 competition after 14 years.
“I just wanted to win it for the team. So I went into the game with that mindset. I am a firm believer in the process and I was just happy that all my preparation came to fruition,” M Siddharth told Sportskeeda.
Inexplicably, he didn’t get a single game in the shortest format in the next season. What is more, he wasn’t even picked for the latest SMAT.
“It’ll be frustrating for any player. But you need to understand the situation and the combinations of the team. I have always believed in my process. I feel if I have some good work behind me, good things will happen. So I just decided to focus on my process, work hard, and not worry about anything else. I have always believed that you get only one chance in life and you have to grab it with both hands. I do work on my bowling and fitness, but I have always waited for that one opportunity. And I feel it’s helping me,” he elaborated.
Opportunities have been sparse in the other formats too. After playing four matches in the 2019/20 Ranji Trophy, he has been picked for just three games across the next two seasons. It seemed he had locked down a spot in the 50-over Vijay Hazare, but he got just three out of eight outings last November-December.
It has also got to do with the plethora of quality spinners Tamil Nadu have been blessed with.
“It has always been healthy. We enjoy each other’s success and we just want the team to win. So whatever suggestions we can share with each other, we do that. We have been doing well and a lot of them are playing for India as well,” Siddharth boasted.
Sai Kishore was the latest entrant into the international arena as he played three T20Is at the Hangzhou Asian Games.
“We have been playing together for a long time. We were at CSG together and we have a very good relationship. We work on technique, we talk about it, and we plan for batters together. And we talk to each other during a match also about how to set up a particular batter. If I bowl first and he comes on from the other end, I tell him how to go about it, and vice-versa. I am really happy that he could play for India,” Siddharth said.
Both are left-arm spinners, but M Siddharth isn’t orthodox and Sai Kishore batted at No. 4 in the Ranji semifinal.
With left-arm spin increasingly becoming a saturated market in this country, you will be forced to keep a close watch on your compatriots.
“Not at all, to be honest. I feel I have my own way and I have always looked at my path like, ‘It’s just me going on. If I do well, I’ll be there.’ I have never looked at others as my competition,” he asserted.
But with a few extra arrows in his quiver, surely he holds an edge?
“I don’t know. It’s a very tough question. I can’t tell all that. I don’t want to tell it to others,” he chuckled.
There can’t be any bigger inspiration than Ravichandran Ashwin, especially in terms of how the 37-year-old always tries to stay ahead of the curve.
“I had a chance to be with him at the Delhi Capitals. I have been blessed to be playing alongside him. I have learnt a lot from him, reading the batters and all that. In a Ranji game, I bowled in tandem with him. These things sort of tell you where you are and how far you’ve come,” Siddharth remarked.
"I don't want to get too far ahead" - M Siddharth
M Siddharth’s first tryst with the IPL came about when KKR snaffled him up at base price for IPL 2020. He didn’t get a game, though. There was renewed hope when DC got his signature the next year. But things took an ugly turn when he was ruled out of the second half in the UAE due to a quadriceps strain.
He didn’t get a single game in his first two years. And he didn’t get a single buyer in the next two. He spent the two seasons honing himself, as a net bowler at MI and CSK.
“To be honest, I had expected to get picked in the last two years as well. But this year, I was like, ‘If it comes, it comes. If it doesn’t, then just move on.’ I was clueless the last two years, but it was a ‘let’s see what happens’ kind of thing this year,” Siddharth continued in the half-hour chat with Sportskeeda.
On December 19 last year, he had his friends over who were watching the IPL 2024 auction on TV while Siddharth had locked himself up in his room.
“For every bid, they were shouting it out. And I was inside my room. It wasn’t a superstition but I didn’t want to watch it because I was a bit nervous. So yeah, I was just listening to whatever was happening outside,” he narrated.
It started with LSG raising the paddle at 20 lakh before they staved off a stubborn battle with RCB and eventually inked the deal for a whopping 2.4 crore.
“My friends and I were just jumping around. My family was really, really happy. You can’t really put these things into words. There was a sense of satisfaction because we were all waiting for this,” he exclaimed.
It was ironic that M Siddharth's maiden IPL wicket came against the very team that was so determined to have him.
He credited former Tamil Nadu and Puducherry off-spinner Alagh Chelliah Prathiban for the turnaround in fortunes.
“We’ve been working for five years now, but the last two years have been very special. We have worked on a lot of things and he’s been there for me. I have to give him a lot of credit,” he stated.
In an earlier interview with Sportskeeda, another Tamil Nadu mystery spinner Varun Chakaravarthy had also spoken highly of AC Prathiban. What really makes him ‘alag’?
“Firstly, he understands the players – what would work and what won’t. And he’s very hardworking and dedicated. You can call him at night, you can call him in the morning, and he’ll be there for you,” Siddharth praised.
He isn’t one to speak his heart out. But he makes sure the first call goes to AC Prathiban in times of distress.
“I first call AC Prathiban. I do a lot of things on my own as well. I think a lot. My dad and my mom are always there, but I try to wade through those moments largely on my own,” he added.
Varun and Siddharth sometimes train together while also having customised one-on-one sessions. For a tweaker with a bagful of variations, it is important to burnish the existing armoury while also add new ones.
“I focus on both sharpening my skills and adding a few variations. You have to constantly upgrade yourself so that the batters can’t predict what you’d bowl,” he proclaimed.
The unconventional deliveries aside, M Siddharth feels his biggest strength lies in constantly hitting the right length.
“In T20s, obviously the first thing you want is to cut down the runs. And then take wickets. And if you can do that consistently, it will help the team. I just look to hit the right length during practice sessions. And if I can consistently do that, I’d be more than happy. I feel preparation is very important,” he opined.
The only chasm that exists between M Siddharth and the top left-arm spinners in the country is in the ability to bat.
“I’ve been working a lot on my batting. I have been scoring runs in Tamil Nadu club cricket, but I want to convert it into domestic cricket too,” he mentioned.
Playing for Grand Slam CC in the TNCA First Division, he fondly remembers his 74-run knock which helped them recover from 50 for five and eventually chase down 190 against Swaraj CC. He had also taken four wickets in that match.
It’s not just about T20 and tricks for M Siddharth. He is working on his red-ball game too while on the path towards the ultimate dream of playing for India. Having endured a long-drawn-out journey to the IPL, he knows a cricketer can never be a shoo-in for success.
“I want to just focus on the IPL for now and go with the flow kind of thing. The ultimate goal obviously is to play for India, but I don’t want to get too far ahead. I want to take it one step at a time. I always focus on my preparation. And the only thing you can do is wait for your chance; you can’t control that. The only thing you can control is work very well behind the scenes,” he reiterated.
He isn’t deprived of glory, though. Ever since he became a TNPL regular, the Chepauk Super Gillies won a hat-trick of titles. Last year, he shifted base to the Lyca Kovai Kings who again went all the way in TNPL 2023.
Can he bring the title luck to LSG in IPL 2024?
“Hopefully, yes. I also have been thinking the same. I wish the same happens to Lucknow as well,” M Siddharth concluded.
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