Laxman Sivaramakrishnan Ready To Coach Indian Spinners Till 2019 World Cup

Former India leg-spinner Laxman Sivaramakrishnan has said he is ready to help Indian spinners till next year’s World Cup, thus expressing his desire to become the team’s spin consultant or coach.

According to a recent report in the Mumbai Mirror, the Indian management is keen to add a spin bowling coach to aid the side. Currently, India have a four-member coaching team with Sanjay Bangar, Bharat Arun and R Sridhar all working with Ravi Shastri. Arun is the bowling coach. But the Indian think tank wants a specialised spin consultant to produce better results especially after the 4-1 thrashing in England.

And Laxman Sivaramakrishnan is ready to throw his hat in the ring.

“I’d like to help our spinners till the World Cup in the role of spin consultant/ coach, if the BCCI approaches me with an offer. The middle overs – from 11 to 40 – is the period when we need to pick up the wickets. If our spinners take five wickets in this period for about 150, they’d have done their job. Otherwise, you’re looking at a potentially dangerous situation, where the opposition’s middle order is set to lunch into a slog in the last 10 overs,” Sivaramakrishnan told TOI.

The former spinner, who was a highly-rated spinner before failing to live up to the hype, further spoke on the Indian spinners.

“All our spinners are good, but need fine-tuning,” he said.

“Kuldeep Yadav’s balance while delivering the ball needs to improve. His body isn’t synchronised properly, and his arms aren’t rotating in a round manner while delivering the ball. Yuzuvendra Chahal tends to drift to the leg and middle, which means the batsmen can look to smash him to mid-wicket, which is likely to be vacant since the two fielders on the on-side are likely to be stationed at deep square leg (for the sweep shot) and long-on.

“If he bowls on or outside off stump, the batsmen will be forced to drive him on the off side, where he can have three fielders – two at point, cover, and long off protecting him. His googly will also become more dangerous then – of the batsman misses it, he’s likely to be bowled or LBW,” he added.

“Both Chahal and Kuldeep have the conventional leg-break and the googly, but they can add a top-spinner to their repertoire. They also need to be careful to not overuse the googly,” Sivaramakrishnan reckoned.

Sivaramakrishnan made his debut at the age of just 17. His finest moment when he took 12/181 to win India a Test in Mumbai in the 1984-85 series against England. He had also bagged the Man of the Series award for bagging 23 wickets.

Meanwhile, Kuldeep and Chahal have not looked back since replacing Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja in the limited-overs team last year.

The duo got a chance after Ashwin and Jadeja’s constant struggles with white-ball and went on to justify their selection. After blowing away Australia, New Zealand and Sri Lanka at home, they made a huge mark in South Africa. Kuldeep and Chahal were the leading wicket-takers in the ODIs. While Kuldeep picked up 17 wickets, Chahal ended with 16 as India beat the hosts 5-1 to win a historic series.

The duo also made their mark in England. While Kuldeep was the highest wicket-taker in ODIs, Chahal was the most economical bowler. Recently, they helped India lift the Asia Cup in UAE.