IPL 2021: Ravi Bishnoi Reinforces Why He Should’ve Played All Along

Ravi Bishnoi made an excellent comeback to Punjab Kings (PBKS) playing XI on Friday (April 23) after missing all four of his team’s early matches in the 14th edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL).

Bishnoi showed exemplary control and consistency against a power-packed Mumbai Indians (MI) batting unit despite being on the sidelines for long. Ravi Bishnoi ended with terrific figures of 2/21 from his four-over quota, including the prized scalps of Ishan Kishan and Suryakumar Yadav.

On a spin-friendly Chepauk track, Bishnoi hardly gave away a thing and forced batsmen to make errors against him. Bishnoi got Kishan out edging his cut shot off a widish delivery outside off that skid through after pitching in his very first over.

Later in the night, Ravi Bishnoi triggered the departure of an in-form Suryakumar as he went about trying to reverse sweep his googly over the short third-man fieldsman, who grabbed hold of the miscued stroke.

Through his impactful performance, Bishnoi only reinforced why it was a massive error from PBKS to leave him out of their playing XI. The team had persisted with a struggling Murugan Ashwin instead and kept one of their few bright spots from last season waiting for an opportunity.

In his first IPL season last winter, Bishnoi took 12 wickets from 14 outings while carrying a respectable economy rate of 7.37. Even as PBKS finished in the lower half of an IPL points table again, Ravi Bishnoi emerged as one of the promising youngsters to watch out for.

Yet, shockingly, Bishnoi remained out of the playing XI till the match against MI, where he made clear who should be PBKS’ first-choice spin option.

Ravi Bishnoi Reinforces Why He Should’ve Played All Along

Born in Jodhpur, Rajasthan, the 20-year-old Ravi Bishnoi first burst into the limelight with his exploits at the 2020 U-19 World Cup in South Africa, which had been televised and streamed to the global audience.

Bishnoi was one of the more exceptional talents on show as he ended the tournament at the top of the wicket-taking chart. He bagged 17 wickets from just 6 matches at an average of 10.64 and an economy rate of 3.48 for India U-19.

Ravi Bishnoi’s performances in the Rainbow Nation were rewarded with IPL recognition from PBKS, who picked him at the auction last year for a sum of INR 2.00 crores and then retained him in the squad for the following edition.

From the U-19 World Cup till now, an aspect of Ravi Bishnoi’s bowling that stood-out is its unconventionality. Bishnoi is unlike most wrist-spinners, who spin and turn the ball away from the right-handers with their stock ball – the leg-spinner. Ravi Bishnoi has an action set up to deliver the googly that gets into the right-handers and goes away from the lefties.

While most unorthodox bowlers tend to carry a surprise factor about them and tend to enjoy a honeymoon period early in their careers, the fact that Ravi Bishnoi sustained his success over the length of a full IPL campaign says something of his skill and promise as batsmen are yet to properly figure him out.

PBKS haven’t had to hide Bishnoi against left-handers and he has been very well apt to tackle the right-handers, who get cramped against his stock ball and are forced to hit against the spin to score through the off-side. To lefties, Bishnoi does a fine job of keeping it away from the arc.

The first look of Bishnoi at the U-19 World Cup got a section of fans worried for his future as he didn’t spin it away from the off-stump as most leg-spinners do. That is still a very valid view with regards to the longer forms of the game where you have to dislodge the batter and not just restrict him. In T20s, though, given that defense and not attack is the surest road towards a wicket, being more of a googly spinner than a leg-break one suffices as well.

And Ravi Bishnoi disguises his googly nicely, so as to not allow the batsman to set himself up for the incomer only. The young talent has a good cricketing brain on his shoulder and uses the angle of the crease to vary his release points and therefore, the lines that the batters eventually face. At the top-level game, it need not be prodigious spin or turn to deceive the batsman, a marginal error in the line and the length you force him to play also does the trick.