India-born Ish Sodhi excited to play against India

Ish Sodhi

The 21-year-old New Zealand leg spinner Ish Sodhi is very much excited to play his first test against India, where he was born. He was born in Ludiana, India. He had spent his childhood days also there, before his parents migrated to New Zealand.

“First and foremost the main thing is I might get a chance to play for my country and that is the biggest thing for me,” Sodhi said.

He knows that its hard to bowl against Indian’s, since they are the best players of spin in the world. But he is ready to take up the challenge. – “And any chance to play India, obviously I was born there and it is special being able to play against India because I have a massive Indian heritage. But I am playing against the best players in the world. That is the big thing to come out of it. The players are also very good players of spin. In general Indian batsmen do come hard at spin. It is quite exciting. Emotion is always going to be there. It is a very big challenge. Obviously you want to be playing against the best in the world and you want to be challenged, and that is the way you find yourself as a cricketer and a person. Also as a person you put yourself in tough situations. Playing at Eden Park is also special to me.”

He is also a great admirer of Shane Warne and Anil Kumble. “As a child you always like to copy bowlers, you try to be Shane Warne, you try to be Anil Kumble. He was my hero growing up. But it is different because you get to a point where you sort of tell yourself ‘I can’t be like Anil Kumble, I can’t be Shane Warne because I’m not built the same way, my mind doesn’t work the same way’. So I have to take into account the bigger things they do and sort of make them the best I can make them with the ability that I have. The biggest thing for me was that he (Warne) was so balanced about the approach to the game. Whether that be, inside the cricket field or outside the cricket field. He was never really clouding his mind with too many thoughts. But when he did bowl everything he took into account how he was going to bowl that day. That was massive to me, kind of relaxed. You are not the only person under pressure.”

He is also expecting to have some good days with the New Zealand left-arm spinner, Daniel Vettori.

“I have spoken to a few people like Daniel Vettori, we have spoken a few times about it but not in too much detail. In the next two days I will have a few conversations. Otherwise a lot of people in this team have played a lot of cricket and I will be able to pick their brains.”

He expresses his attitude in bowling, where he considers leg-spin bowling as an attacking option. But he accepts the fact that, he may also have to do the containing role or defensive bowling tactics too.

“Leg spin you see yourself as an attacking weapon. But I think there are going to be times in the Test series there will be the holding job and I might have to do that. It will be the pace bowlers in the first innings and if it does spin later in the second innings then I might have to (attack). It is about adjusting between those two modes,” Sodhi signed-off.