\u201cWhich IPL team are you working for? You\u2019re the best throwdown [specialist] I have seen in India.”<\/p>\n
Anoop told Sammy he was still working hard for such a chance. His cricketing career had stalled due to a knee injury, but the 29-year-old had kept the dream alive in a different way. As a sidearm expert, he\u2019s bowled to Harmanpreet Kaur and Smriti Mandhana during India\u2019s Trivandrum visit last year, featured as a throwdown specialist and fielding coach in the Kerala Cricket League, and taken personal sessions with Ranji Trophy players from the state.<\/p>\n
Most notably, Sanju Samson.<\/p>\n
Last year, after a session with Samson at the Ranji Trophy camp, Anoop decided to go up to Chettan and ask for advice on something he had been working on the side.<\/p>\n
Anoop had been generating 140-145 kph with his right arm, but for novelty\u2019s sake, also been testing out his left arm for a few months. He asked Samson if he should just stick to his strengths or experiment with his left arm as well.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo no, you have to focus on the left arm also,\u201d Samson told him. \u201cIt\u2019s quite valuable \u2013 left-arm throwdowns are very rare so you should do that: you can become an ambidextrous throwdown specialist.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd not just for marketing, only if you\u2019re keen on the process.\u201d<\/p>\n
Anoop decided to take the plunge. He started to use his left hand for daily activities: writing, eating, brushing. Last month, he checked his speed with the left arm and was touching 125-130 kph. \u201cI am now working on slowers, cutters, and targeting 120kph with all my variations\u201d.<\/p>\n
Anoop did not bowl with his left arm against the West Indies, because \u201cyou need 110% confidence and not a single ball should be a wide. We have to value their time\u201d. As he builds up his confidence, he intends to use the two-arm skill on Kerala players during the Ranji season.<\/p>\n
\u201cAmbidextrous side-armers are very rare,\u201d he said. \u201cTill now, I haven\u2019t seen those in the mainstream use both arms because you don\u2019t want to take a chance. You must be 200% accurate with every ball. Even left-arm throwdowns are very few, even in the IPL\u201d.<\/p>\n
Samson\u2019s advice has been a big motivator for Anoop, who has worked with the India batter on a one-on-one basis in the past. The West Indies gig was provided by the Kerala Cricket Association, but with Samson, he continues to have solo sessions at the St Xavier\u2019s ground in Thumba, the most recent one ahead of the New Zealand tour earlier this year leading up to the T20 World Cup.<\/p>\n
Anoop did not get to bowl at the Indian team because they already have their own set of side-armers, but the West Indies stint was an experience to remember.<\/p>\n
\u201cInitially, they gave me an old ball, they wanted to see how I was doing. After the first batter left, they switched me to the new ball to bowl different lengths.<\/p>\n
For the last three batters, Sammy started an internal challenge between the two, giving each of them targets to their respective batters: 18 balls, 40 runs and so on. The rapport built up quickly: \u201cHe knew what I was trying to do, just by actions we could understand each other.\u201d<\/p>\n
When one of the batters needed one run in one ball, Sammy came up to Anoop and said: \u201cI need a nasty bouncer, he is quite tall\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cI bowled and it correctly hit the glove and helmet. Sammy came to hug me and said: \u2018You did it, man!\u2019\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey were all happy and dancing, creating a vibe,\u201d Anoop said. \u201cIt\u2019s intense, but they also include fun activities.\u201d<\/p>\n
When Sammy got to know Anoop doesn\u2019t work for any IPL team, he felt \u201cquite sad\u201d, and asked him to message him on Instagram. Possibly given the hectic travel schedule, Anoop is yet to hear back from his throwdown buddy of a day.<\/p>\n
![\"anoop-impressed-daren-sammy-with-his-throwdown-abilities\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/anoop-impressed-daren-sammy-with-his-throwdown-abilities.jpg\"\/)
<\/p>\n
Anoop impressed Daren Sammy with his throwdown abilities. \u00a9Cricbuzz<\/p>\n
Mohammed Irshad was a member of KCL 2026 champions Thrissur Titans. Like Anoop, he was called up to help India and West Indies prepare in Trivandrum, but as a net bowler at the behest of Prasanth Padmanabhan, a former IPL bowler and now coach & selector. It gave him a chance to bowl to the who\u2019s-who of the Indian batting lineup.<\/p>\n
Irshad recalled how a meeting with Samson in March 2020, right before the Covid-19 lockdown, had a huge bearing on him. The right-arm quick had travelled to Thumba, hoping to catch Samson bat live and possibly click a photo with him. Irshad ended up doubling as a ball boy, collecting balls to the centre wicket where Samson was batting.<\/p>\n
\u201cLater, he called everyone to bowl at him. I bowled 6-7 balls, and he asked me where I was from and how I had come,\u201d Irshad recalled. Samson asked him to come the next day too.<\/p>\n
When Irshad returned, he was given a new ball and asked to open the bowling. Irshad managed to hit Samson\u2019s off-stump, a video of which he proudly shows.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe liked my slower delivery,\u201d Irshad said, also showing the photo he eventually took with Samson. That wasn\u2019t all: when he saw the young bowler walking to the main road, he picked him up and dropped him to his location.<\/p>\n
Look around, and you\u2019ll find countless such Samson stories in Kerala. As the much-loved son of the state, Samson has influenced lives not just through his batting, but also a man of the masses, helping and guiding the next generation along the way.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Throwdown specialist Anoop Sree had spent several years bowling in the Thiruvananthapuram Cricket Stadium, but one evening in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":920552,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[564],"tags":[10968,64,63,740,1209,43196,85,1212,472942],"class_list":["post-920551","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cricket","tag-10968","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-cricket","tag-india","tag-sanju-samson","tag-sports","tag-west-indies","tag-west-indies-tour-of-india"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/920551","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=920551"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/920551\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/920552"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=920551"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=920551"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=920551"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}