{"id":270587,"date":"2025-11-18T23:40:10","date_gmt":"2025-11-18T23:40:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/270587\/"},"modified":"2025-11-18T23:40:10","modified_gmt":"2025-11-18T23:40:10","slug":"india-unleash-secret-weapon-in-nets-summon-rare-bowler-to-prep-for-south-africas-spin-challenge-after-eden-blow","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/270587\/","title":{"rendered":"India unleash secret weapon in nets, summon rare bowler to prep for South Africa\u2019s spin challenge after Eden blow"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

India unleashed a surprise element in their optional net session at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata on Tuesday, calling a rare bowler to help the batters prepare for South Africa<\/a>\u2019s spin challenge. The move came just days after the Eden Gardens blow, where concerns around handling quality spin resurfaced.<\/p>\n

\"India's India’s coach Gautam Gambhir during a training session ahead of the second Test cricket match between India and South Africa, at Eden Gardens(PTI) <\/p>\n

According to a PTI report, India held a match simulation in Kolkata to help batters prepare for the threat of off-spinner Simon Harmer<\/a>, who claimed four wickets in each innings of the series opener, and left-arm spinner Keshav Maharaj. During the session, unheralded Bengal ambidextrous spinner Kaushik Maity was brought in as a nets option, doubling up for both roles during the optional practice.<\/p>\n

The 26-year-old, who has represented Bengal in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy and also appeared in IPL <\/a>trials for Rajasthan Royals, bowled both off-breaks to left-handers Sai Sudharsan, Washington Sundar, Ravindra Jadeja and Devdutt Padikkal and left-arm spin to Dhruv Jurel, the only right-handed batter present.<\/p>\n

“It was my first time at the India nets although I have bowled in the IPL nets of various franchises during games at Eden Gardens. Today I bowled off-break to Sai Sudharsan, Washington Sundar, Ravindra Jadeja and Devdutt Padikkal. To Dhruv Jurel, I bowled left-arm spin,” said Maity.<\/p>\n

The bowler revealed that he received no bowling instructions from India’s head coach, Gautam Gambhir, or bowling coach, Morne Morkel. Maity, who has played eight List A and three T20 games for Bengal, simply relied on his natural variations and stock deliveries, relishing the rare chance to bowl to elite-level batters.<\/p>\n

“I concentrated on what I wanted to bowl and neither the Indian players nor coaches asked me to bowl in any specific area. It was a learning experience for me bowling to world-class players,” he added.<\/p>\n

Maity, who will be aiming for an IPL contract at the upcoming auction, said it was a dream moment to bowl to Ravindra Jadeja, who, in turn, offered him a valuable piece of advice.<\/p>\n

“It was a dream come true to be able to bowl to Jaddu bhai (Ravindra Jadeja) and also get some doubts cleared,” he said.<\/p>\n

“Jaddu bhai, after batting against me, observed that my natural length is around 4m to 5m. He said that I need to push back my length by a metre (6 to 7m) and fire it in quicker, giving batters less time to respond,” Maity elaborated.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"India unleashed a surprise element in their optional net session at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata on Tuesday,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":270588,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[1721,18855,102939,111384,102938,12935,111385,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-270587","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cricket","tag-cricket","tag-gautam-gambhir","tag-ind-vs-sa","tag-ind-vs-sa-2nd-test","tag-india-vs-south-africa","tag-indian-cricket-team","tag-kaushik-maity","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/270587","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=270587"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/270587\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/270588"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=270587"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=270587"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=270587"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}