How innocuous spinner Yuvraj turned deadly

When the Kochi Tuskers draw up their gameplan for Wednesdays match against the Pune Warriors,Yuvrajs bowling will surely figure in their discussions. How,they might wonder,does he get so many wickets?

His teammate and fellow left-arm spinner Murali Kartik doesnt think his improved bowling is the result of any technical changes. Hes always been a good bowler. Sometimes,the confidence from batting can permeate into your bowling,and maybe hes getting more wickets because of that, he says. With Yuvrajs bowling action,you cant do too much technically. Hes the first one to laugh at it.

Yuvraj might laugh self-effacingly,but his natural style does give him a bit of help. The low arm helps him angle the ball into the batsmen,and sucker-punch them when they play for turn. At release,his front knee is bent. This causes the ball to skid and stay low and confound batsmen who,from the other end,have seen Harbhajan Singh get the ball to jump at them,thanks to his high-arm action and braced front knee.

Pie-chucker no more

Over the last year or so,Yuvraj has become a more rounded bowler,and added enough layers of subtlety to ensure that Kevin Pietersen wont call him a pie-chucker again. After the World Cup,he credited selector and former India leg spinner Narendra Hirwani for his evolution.

Earlier,his body would fall away towards the right side. I told him,dont change your action too much,but just try to keep your head straighter, says Hirwani. Because of that,his wrist position has automatically become better,and hes able to get a little more turn than he used to.

Hirwani also suggested that Yuvraj put more work on the ball with his wrists and fingers. And I told him to bowl slow through the air,and vary his pace a little more, he says. All I said was 8211; you are a batsman yourself,so try and bowl the delivery that you wouldnt like to face.

The variations in pace helped Yuvraj dismiss a number of batsmen at the World Cup,caught trying to drive him through the off side. When he bowls slower,the batsman has to impart all the power,and sometimes ends up playing too early, says Hirwani.

Otherwise,Hirwani didnt advise too many changes. Hes played cricket for so long that you cant suddenly make big changes. But I told him to bowl constantly at one stump in the nets,so that he masters bowling a good line and length. If youre confident about your line and length,your full focus during the match will be on the batsman and his footwork, he says. And I also suggested that he bowl a lot more overs when he plays first class cricket.

Bhupinder Singh Sr.,Punjab Ranji Trophy team coach,saw this first-hand. Yuvraj played the first three games for us last season,and he bowled a lot more in the nets than he used to before, he says.

He also made it a point to bowl more overs in the matches. I think this helped him a lot,since he could experiment a lot and see what worked for him.