New Delhi, May 17, 2025
Making Mohammed Siraj trust his outswinger a little more while getting Prasidh Krishna to bring his length a little ahead are the changes which Gujarat Titans’ head coach Ashish Nehra has brought about in the two pacers, which in turn has made them more effective bowlers, revealed veteran pacer Ishant Sharma.
‘t change much. Ashish bhai didn’t change much in his bowling. The only change he made was that sometimes, Siraj didn’t feel very confident in his outswing. But this is the only difference in a good coach, especially if that coach has bowled in international cricket.”
“So he has that experience, and he always said to him, ‘Trust your outswinger. That is your stock ball’. He used to bowl with a wobble-seam – it would come in after the ball hit the seam. So he used to bowl it a lot earlier, and he stopped bowling his outswinger.”
“So, Ashish bhai said, ‘No, your first ball will be an outswing. When this ball stops swinging, you will go for that ball (wobble-seam ball). So he just kept it very simple – ‘that this is your ball, you have to bowl it’,” said Ishant to IANS during a Star Sports Press Room episode around the race to play-offs on Saturday.
He further explained the change in lengths, which has made Prasidh more lethal with his hit-the-deck bowling style in the middle overs. “With regards to Prasidh, the major change which Ashu bhai has done with him is that, with him being tall, his natural length used to be six metres, and because of that, he gets bounce. So he told him that you have to take your length a little ahead.”
“If you understand in metres, there are two different soils we play on – black and red. So on red soil, you have to bowl four and a half metres. With the same kind of intent, you bowl back of the length, you have to hit that length four and a half metres. On black soil, your length will go back a little bit, it will be five to six metres.”
“So he practiced with him and then told him that when he feels that you are feeling confident about your length, then add one yorker in between. So this was a plus point because Ashu bhai has played, and the game is so simple, like he said that there is no better ball than length bowling. Take any format if your ball is finishing in three stumps, top of stumps,” he elaborated.
Nehra, the former India fast-bowler, had coached GT to the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2022 win and with the side still on top of the points table in the ongoing competition, Ishant shared how his relationship with Nehra has evolved from being teammates in Delhi and India set-ups to now being in a player-coach alliance.
“If I talk about my relation, like that, I have played with him, we used to play together when I made my debut. Not only international debut, but even in my first-class debut, he was bowling, and I bowled a lot. So we know each other in many ways. We have meetings in the corridor, we discuss batters in the bus, that this batter can do this, or that, and this or that can happen.”
“So we never actually formally talk about meetings. In our meetings, we drink tea and coffee. So our meeting is not a formal meeting where we discuss batters, that we will do this, we will do that. It’s a very chill atmosphere, and it’s not just with me, but with everyone,” he concluded.
Catch Rajasthan Royals vs Punjab Kings at 3:30 PM, followed by Delhi Capitals vs Gujarat Titans at 7:30 PM on May 18, as teams race to IPL 2025 play-offs — live and exclusive on JioHotstar and Star Sports Network.(Agency)
