“My job is to stay one step ahead of the batters”: Harshal Patel on batsmen anticipating his variations
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Harshal Patel
India pacer Harshal Patel believes that he is one step ahead of the batters when it comes to them anticipating his variations. In the first T20I, Rassie van der Dussen had smashed three sixes and a four in an over off Harshal Patel to turn the game. After the match, the van der Dussen said that after the first two sixes, he had anticipated Harshal Patel’s next balls to be slower ones.
“People have been trying to anticipate for the past two years,” Harshal said on the eve of the fourth T20I against South Africa. “To be very honest, with every bowler, the longer they play, the more the opposition will realise what their strengths are, what the patterns are, and try to adapt to it. But as a bowler, my job is to stay one step ahead of batters.
“At the end of the day, you can have 15 different plans, but on a particular day, in a pressure situation, if you don’t go out and execute with confidence, everything doesn’t really fall in place. So my focus has always been on how to read the game better in that particular moment and how to execute the best possible delivery at that point in time.”
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“We are trying towards World Cup, but the focus right now is towards the South Africa series, says Harshal Patel
In the three T20Is, Harshal Patel is the joint-leading wicket-taker. He bowled impressively in the third T20I in Vishakhapatnam. The slow picth suited his bowling and helped him scalp 4-25 in 3.1 overs.
“Although there was not a lot of variable bounce or lateral movement from the pitch, it was definitely slow,” he said. “So that allowed us to bowl hard length and slower balls into the pitch. It was difficult to clear the boundary from those lengths.
“I would certainly prefer playing on slower pitches because it allows you a bit of fighting chance. If you consistently keep playing on pitches like Delhi, it can hamper your confidence a little bit. We also have world-class spinners in the team, who can bowl well on any pitch, but it does bring them a little more into the game when we have slightly slower pitches and slightly bigger ground dimensions.”
In the five-match T20I series, South Africa is leading with 2-1. Everyone has said that the team has been building towards the T20 World Cup and Harshal Patel has the same answer. Although, World Cup is at the back of their minds, their focus right now is the current T20I and later would be their series against Ireland.
“To be honest, you cannot play your cricket thinking too much about the future or past. Like everyone has said before as well, the World Cup is at the back of our minds and we are trying to work towards that goal. But at the same time, we are 2-1 behind in the series, so the focus is on how to win the next two games. After that, we are going to Ireland, so things will move towards that direction but at this point, our focus is on how to win this series.”
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Gouri Das
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