Demystifying Sunil Narine

He is known as an off-spinner to the world; he shot to lime light with 2011 Champions league donning Trinidad & Tobago colors. But the prefix ‘off-spinner’ is hardly suitable for the someone of his talent and for the one who can make the ball talk in both direction with the same bowling action; making him all the more difficult to pick. To begin with, he has talent in abundance (if one were to look at his IPL stint). The ball which turned more than a foot before crashing the master’s off stump is the testimony of the talent and bright future he would have. Looking at the kind of analysis which goes in, one can surely take a bet on the time-lines before he is demystified and batsmen start picking him.

This was probably the most awaited test debut in sometime, especially in English conditions. Had he debuted back in the Australia test series, looking at his performances in ODIs, he would have surely rattled them. He was phenomenal in that ODI series – he took 11 wickets in the series with an economy rate of 3.3 and an average of 14.45. Even thought he didn’t really run down the Aussie line-up, playing him effectively was extremely difficult. Video of the wickets he took:

Looking at his bowling technique, his bag is full of variety and to top it all, he bowls accurate length. The only technique he needs to add to this armoury will be how to flight the ball efficiently, something which a bowler like Saeed Ajmal has perfected. His much hyped test debut turned out to be a chastening one when Pietersen milked him for runs and boundaries with ease. One of the reasons for the drubbing is him being more suited to dryer pitches and warmer weather while in England, under cloudy and damp conditions, ball didn’t wear and tear much, and hence didn’t spin as expected. Besides, his gripping of the ball wasn’t much subtle due to conditions. In these scenarios, while conditions are cold and cloudy, flight and guile will be his major weapons. But having said that, he can look up to Shane Warne whose debut figures were 150/ 1.

Narine’s Knuckle ball behaves like a leg break which comes out of the front of his hand and achieved with extraordinary flick of index and middle finger.

Narine’s Knuckle ball behaves like a leg break which comes out of the front of his hand and achieved with extraordinary flick of index and middle finger. So the secret lies with how Sunil Narine grips the ball; when he grips the cherry with the middle finger on the seam and other 2 sideways – it will be an off break while if index finger raised slightly lower on one half and other two fingers placed slightly higher than index finger, then it will be a leg break. The secret of Knuckle ball is all in the grip when the ball is held with index and middle finger at one side and the other one at opposite side placed a bit lower than index and middle finger.

When Greg Chappell wrote “The Brain is Better Cricketer than you will ever be”, he emphasizes on mental aspect involved in the game when competing opposite player of supreme talent and the one who presents lot of diversity and keeps batsmen guessing. Sunil Narine’s case is similar where vision of the batsmen is of extreme importance. To tackle his variation, batsmen can visualize the pitch map area from short of length to full length into matrix form. Based on the ball being pitched in any square of the matrix decides the shot selection. There will be some form of risk associated always when facing someone who can turn the ball in either direction equally with point blank precision. Irony of facing Narine is that the batsmen must hit the ball without knowing exactly where it is, but precisely when it will be there.

Considering the fact based on Sunil Narine’s bowling pitch map, his 70% plus deliveries are on good length and the ones which are pitched on good length, but on wider side, have more chance of coming into the batsmen (IPL 5 – Sachin Tendulkar’s Dismissal), or those top spinners which hold their line but skid a bit more than the orthodox off-breaks. Considering his penchant for good length deliveries, this gives the batsmen more time to play the ball and as late as possible. In test match scenario, where unlike T20, batsman is not under pressure to attack almost every ball, he has lot of time to understand and predict the path of the delivery.

While playing good length deliveries as late as possible is one option, for dealing with fuller length deliveries, batsmen will need to make sure they get as close to the pitch of the ball as much possible. Then even if it deviates after pitching, it will not have moved far enough to beat the edge of the bat. Secondly, batsmen must make sure that they play defensive shots with ultra soft hands in order to make sure that in case of an edge, it will not have momentum to reach the close-in fielders.

Facing Sunil Narine will always present a need to predict – to launch a stroke in a particular direction without being convinced that ball will arrive at that position at the right time. This cannot be achieved by practice alone and will remain the greatest plus point for Sunil Narine when he dismisses top batsmen.

Sunil Narine will have to reinvent himself once the magic code is broken. Guile and accuracy will be his true companions if he has to headline major cricketing events.

Bewildered with his talent, IPL franchise KKR consider themselves blessed to have Sunil Narine in their ranks, who was also in Mumbai Indians‘ and Pune Warriors’ shortlist. His talent was much appreciated in IPL and incidentally WICB was toast of many jokes like “No one can pick Sunil Narine – Not even West-indies picks him”. This is a modern era where 24 cameras focus on each and everything player does on the ground, players’ mannerisms are tracked to the “T” in order to devise a strategy around it. Sunil Narine will have to reinvent himself once the magic code is broken and he becomes predictable. Guile and accuracy will be his true companions if he has to be the headline of major cricketing events.