Quick learner
Armed with a quirky action, Sohail Tanvir has swung his way from obscurity to the big league in three months. Nagraj Gollapudi spoke to him
|
|
I started playing cricket even before I started studying. We are four brothers and two sisters. The cricket started in the Jhand Chichi mohalla [neighbourhood] where we lived, and it was my favourite pastime to play tape-ball cricket - with my brothers first, and then with other kids.
Seventy per cent of my cricket has been played with the tape ball. Unfortunately, I don't have the time for it anymore.
As a fast bowler in tape-ball cricket you have to use all your strength to deliver it fast. That's why Pakistan has produced a lot of fast bowlers. So by the time you start bowling with a proper cricket ball, you're already delivering at a good pace.
When I was young I was primarily a batsman in mohalla cricket and then in school. But when I started playing at the club level I started bowling on pitches which are usually broken and unprepared. So I started to bowl spin, and I used to get sharp spin. I bowled spin in the Patron's Trophy, grade II.
The pitches in Pakistan at first-class level are normally in favour of fast bowlers, so the spinner hardly has a chance of prospering. In a squad of 15 there's one spinner and he'll play just a handful of games in a season. To add to it, there were many senior left-arm spinners who were competing for a place, so I felt I had no chance. My grade two coach, Sabi Azhar, who knew about my tape-ball skills, encouraged me to start bowling fast. I did so during a national team camp and troubled quite a few batsmen. I didn't have any understanding of swing; I just charged in and tried bowling as fast as possible. Then I went for the first-class trials three years back and got lucky. That was how my career as a fast bowler started.
Not at all. I don't think you can develop an action as tricky as mine. Right from the tape-ball days I've always had this action, so it's natural. Yes, others have always told me how difficult my action is to pick, but I would tell them that it's just normal, like others. When I saw videos of myself, I realised the difference.
In the domestic season last year I scored good runs and got around 33 wickets in seven matches. Then against a Bangladesh academy side I bowled well on pitches that were flat, and even if I didn't take wickets, I impressed the coach. Within ten days of my return I was heading for England to play league cricket, but at the same time there was a camp conducted by Wasim bhai [Akram]. Aaqib bhai stopped me from going to England and asked me to attend the camp. He told me I had talent which I needed to develop. He felt Wasim bhai could help me develop my inswinger.
This is a unique thing: I haven't ever felt pressure. The confidence comes from playing tape-ball cricket - the intensity is the same as in India-Pakistan games! I would take the new ball in those games, so I was responsible for my team. That helped me.
In the Twenty20 the three wickets against Australia, in one-dayers the four against India [in Jaipur] and in Tests the three in the first innings in Delhi.
I haven't ever felt pressure. My confidence comes from playing tape-ball cricket - the intensity there is the same as in India-Pakistan games | |||
He's been helping on the tactics front. I've played only about 20 first-class games, so I don't have much idea about strategies. He keeps sending messages during the game to help me plan out batsmen, and that has helped. I listen to everyone but pick the advice I feel will help me.
It's too early to say anything, but having bowled on green pitches back home, where the ball swings all the time, and now to bowl on dead and flat pitches in both forms of the game is something I'm learning. I've started working on line and length, understanding the batsman's strengths and weakness, trying to read him and not allowing him to settle. This comes by talking with senior players. I have been a very quick learner always. The other thing is, I adapt fast.
My mind is unable to accept that I've become a little special. I still follow the routines of going around with friends and hanging out at the old spots. My parents remind me that it's time to cut down on that, and that I should be responsible. But it takes a while.
Nagraj Gollapudi is an assistant editor at Cricinfo