CAU helped develop a focused bowling approach for MI pacer
NEW DELHI: Akash Madhwal helped Mumbai Indians come back from a tough spot when Jasprit Bumrah was absent and Jofra Archer was struggling in a must-win game on Sunday. Madhwal’s ability to deliver impeccable yorkers in the death overs helped Mumbai Indians restrict Sunrisers Hyderabad to an under-par score on a placid Wankhede pitch. He finished the game with four wickets at the expense of 37 runs.
It has been quite a journey for Madhwal, who was an engineer turned tennis-ball cricketer from Roorkee. He has transitioned to become a dependable Indian Premier League (IPL) pacer at the age of 29, in just four years. Madhwal’s journey began when he turned up for trials organized by the Cricket Association of Uttarakhand. Former India opener, Wasim Jaffer, was the coach then and he picked Madhwal for the state side. He got a couple of games but was benched.
During the 2020-21 domestic season, former Services pacer Manish Jha took over as Uttarakhand coach. He worked on Madhwal’s focus, which was often lacking. “He had raw talent with a fickle mind. He would try to bowl too many variations because he watched bowlers doing that on TV. The first thing we had to do was to get him to focus. I told him to just bowl fast and not think about leaking runs. We gave him the assurance that he would play all the matches in the Vijay Hazare Trophy,” Jha told TOI on Sunday.
Despite still swaying from the team’s plans, CAU decided to give Madhwal more responsibility the following season. “CAU secretary Mahim Verma backed him. We sat him down and told him we were giving him captaincy of the T20 team. He became responsible from there. He always had good yorkers at pace, but his tendency to bowl too many different types of deliveries hurt him. As a captain, he realized he couldn’t take chances and stuck to his strengths. He always had a good temperament because tennis-ball cricket is very intense and competitive,” Jha said.
Jha reckons that Madhwal didn’t take much time to adapt to the leather ball. “He is an engineer by qualification. He picked up the nuances really fast. He doesn’t have his father and his family wasn’t financially stable. Akash always listened to what was told to him and was driven to succeed. With the red ball, he hasn’t nailed it yet because he needs to figure out the right length with his deliveries that skid off the pitch,” Jha said.