Leg-spinner Karn Sharma ready to rise to the occasion in Australia

I don’t change much in the longer format. I bowl with the same action and with the same intensity. But I do focus a lot on turning the ball more. If you can turn a couple significantly early on, then you put doubts in the batsman’s head. It’s about doing it consistently so that as a leg-spinner you can bring in your varieties from that point on.

You have a quick-arm action, which is a bit unconventional for a leggie. 

I have bowled the same way, for as long as I can remember. Even though it was slightly unconventional, my coaches always encouraged me to stick with it. I did go through a phase early in my career where I was completely taken in by Shane Warne and even attempted his action briefly in practice.

Did he inspire you to take up leg-spin? 

I used to watch him bowl a lot on television. And I was always fascinated by how he would turn the ball a lot even on pitches in Australia and England, which hardly have anything in them for spinners. And the day I took to the field, I just wanted to bowl leg-spin. Not off-spin or seam-up, nothing. Just wanted to do what Warne does. Then there was that spell he bowled against South Africa in the 1999 World Cup. I still stop whatever I’m doing and watch it whenever they show highlights of that spell.

Has the action helped you in any way?

The biggest advantage with my action is, since it’s so quick-arm, often the batsman’s judgment gets affected by it. It takes him quite some time to get used to it and isn’t always sure about what delivery is coming at him. Or for that matter, the pace at which it’s arriving. For starters, he expects the ball to be flat and not be flighted to any extent. That is where he gets deceived.

Can you recall taking a wicket where the batsman was flummoxed mainly because of your action?

I remember a dismissal two years ago in Hyderabad during a Ranji Trophy game, where the batsman shouldered arms to a googly and was bowled. He was obviously expecting the ball to leave him since it came from a leg-break action. It was similar to how I bowled Mahela Jayawardene through the gate two weeks back at CCI with a googly.The advantage of having a quick-arm action is that you can bowl your variations without any apparent tweak or adjustment at the point of delivery. Even if there is one, the batsman doesn’t get a good look at it.

How do you plan to cope on Australia’s wickets?

The best way is to try and put more purchase on the ball. Give it a rip and tweak it more. Put some more shoulder on it than usual. Anil bhai (Kumble) was very successful on those pitches. His action was slightly more high-arm than me, and he would get that disconcerting bounce. Even with my lower-arm action, the pitches there will give me bounce. Adjusting the line is important too. If the pitch turns a lot, you can pitch it more on off-and-middle. In Australia, the line has to be more around off-stump and just outside. He used to get a lot of guys caught at short-leg. Most of my wickets come through catches at slip or silly point. But since I have a googly and flipper, I too can bring short-leg into play.