Powerplay swinger to death-overs specialist: the reinvention of Sandeep Sharma

Close your eyes and tell me what you see when you think about Sandeep Sharma. A swing bowler, probably a little too slow in the air or too early with the movement? A death bowler celebrating with one finger raised to the sky only to find out he has overstepped and then lose the match on the re-bowled last ball?

Going against these first impressions, Rajasthan Royals drafted him in after he went unsold at the auction last year. This is a side that has in it perhaps the best new-ball bowler you can think of, Trent Boult, who can't help taking wickets in the first over, even if with a filthy leg-side wide as he did in Sunday's match.

What room would they have for someone who is the second-most successful IPL bowler in the powerplay and mostly used for only one over outside of it? It turned out they wanted to use him at the death, a phase of play that has the least correlation with the bowler's skills. He has limited pace, a straightforward action and no fancy slower balls.

It is not an easy job to reinvent yourself at such a late stage in your career but, given this new job description, he started to find ways to be effective at the death. His philosophy has been: if you bowl to your field, thus bowling what the batter is expecting, be good enough to nail that ball. That go-to delivery for him is the yorker. For variation, he has the knuckle ball and the slower bouncer. Again, not too different to the only man more prolific than him in the powerplay: Bhuvneshwar Kumar.

It is tempting to wonder if Sandeep would have played more than just the two T20Is he has for India had it not been for the presence of Bhuvneshwar. Now, though, Sandeep probably knows that ship has sailed. There is no place for Bhuvneshwar himself in the India side.

At one rung below that, Sandeep continues to do the job required of him even if it means giving up that powerplay role to Boult. Against Lucknow Super Giants, he was introduced as late as the 15th over. That is incredible pressure because you are probably going to bowl three on the trot in the most difficult phase of the game.

Somebody who is used to carrying confidence from his line and length bowling with the moving new ball now has to start off with set pieces. LSG needed just 65 off the last six overs with six wickets in hand. They had to their disposal Nicholas Pooran, Marcus Stoinis and a set KL Rahul, all three fearsome propositions. With figures of 3-0-22-1 though, Sandeep nailed the game for Rajasthan Royals much like he nailed most of his yorkers on the night.

"If you see, I have never had to start a spell on that wide line with the new ball," Sandeep later said, "but today I had to. That said, the management had made it clear to me where I would be bowling majority of my overs so I worked mostly on slower bouncers and yorkers in the nets. I anyway knew I wouldn't be bowling much with the new ball because Boulty is a world-class bowler, one of the best in the world."

It is this self-awareness and the willingness to still make yourself competitive that has drawn generous praise for Sandeep from his team-mates. "IPL is built on perceptions," R Ashwin said. "If you look at the numbers and the way he has bowled in the IPL over the years, he is probably going to be one of the top five bowlers when it comes to bowling in the powerplay. And later in the game as well.

"He has had a massive shoulder injury, has had to sit out, had indifferent two years, but he has been an unsung hero. Stepped up in the absence of Prasidh Krishna last year, did the dirty job, sometimes doesn't look attractive on the figures. Sandy is a character. For me, it is not about how good someone looks on the eye, what skill they have, it's about the fight they have. Largely in this game, especially T20, a bowler up for the fight is way more important than a bowler with the skill."

Sandeep's captain Sanju Samson won the Player-of-the-Match award for his innings of 82 not out, but he knows he had 52 balls to make an impact on the game, which he successfully did, but Sandeep had just 18 balls to do the same. He had no qualms in admitting who the Player of the Match should have been.

"I think this trophy should go to him," Samson said. "If he hadn't bowled those three overs, I wouldn't be standing with this Man-of-the-Match trophy. I thought about getting him here, but thoda zyada ho jata [that would have been a little performative]."

This was a happy night for Royals but it will be just as important to maintain this perspective when Sandeep gets hit around on another night. And in this game, every death-overs specialist does.