Ranji Trophy: Aniket Choudhary’s 6 five-fors in seven innings

Since his debut seven years ago, Choudhary has made steady progress to cement his spot in the Rajasthan team as a talented seamer, who could rattle up opposition batsmen with pace and disconcerting bounce. The fact that he was a left-armer added a certain layer of intrigue to him. This played a role when the Indian team management under coach Anil Kumble summoned him as a nets bowler to prepare the batsmen for New Zealand’s Neil Wagner ahead of the three Test series at home in 2016.

Despite the positives, his returns in all the previous six domestic seasons weren’t spectacular by any stretch. So what’s brought about this sudden turnaround? Choudhury puts it down to his experience, emphasis on fitness, and most crucially, in perfecting the inswinger to right-handers. “After playing Ranji Trophy for seven years, you will learn a few tricks, become more experienced. Apart from that, I have realised how important fitness and recovery is for a fast bowler. So, even during my off-season, I kept a tab on my diet and exercise regimen. I guess all that has paid off,” he says. His vicious inswinger has knocked off some of the most competent batsmen on the circuit. As Choudhury puts it: “I am naturally a hit-the-deck bowler and my natural line is the one that shapes away from the right hander. During my off-season, I was working on developing an inswinger, for which I watched numerous videos on Youtube, and also had discussions with (former Rajasthan captain) Pankaj Singh. After lot of practice, I have finally managed to perfect it.” Caught behind and bowled have been his most preferred modes of dismissals, but the potent inswinger has helped him nail quite a few lbws as well. “The inswinger is the perfect set-up delivery for me. After a couple of my natural outwingers, I push one delivery back in, which takes the batsmen off guard and makes them candidates for lbw,” he says.

Another reason for the 28-year-old’s turnaround can be put forward to his change in mentality. For long, he was seen as the support bowler to the seasoned Pankaj Singh, happy to bowl defensive lines. Singh’s departure to Puducherry brought about a shift in his attitude. “We keep having discussions about bowling even after I left Rajasthan. One of the most impressive things about him is that he is no longer a one-track, one-trick pony anymore. With his inswinger, he has expanded his repertoire without sacrificing his pace,” Singh says.

What has also helped Choudhury blossom is the presence of his left-arm bowling partner Tanvir Ul-Haq. Even though they have vastly contrasting bowling styles — Tanvir is an out-and-out swing bowler, while Choudhury relies on seam movement, they feed off each other’s successes. Like Choudhury, Tanvir, too, is in the middle of an incredible run of form, having prised out 35 scalps in the season so far. With 74 scalps between them, they have been instrumental in catapulting Rajasthan to the top of the points table, with five wins and are already relishing at the prospects of breaking into the knock-outs.

Three left-arm pacers

Their new-ball partnership meant that even the absence of the other talented left-arm pacer in Khaleel Ahmed, who was out on international duty, did not hamper Rajasthan’s bowling. Khaleel’s return for this fixture against Haryana meant that captain Mahipal Lomror had the luxury of going all-out with a three-pronged left-arm pace attack. “We were discussing it in the morning that for the first time, Rajasthan has three contrasting left-arm seamers in the line-up, which was a rare sight in domestic cricket,” Choudhary notes.

Despite the heap of wickets at the domestic circuit, going unsold at the recently concluded IPL auction hurts Choudhary. “This is perhaps the best I have been bowling, so I was expecting to be picked. More so, after playing the last season for Royal Challengers Bangalore,” he offers. Even India A tours have been few and far in between. Choudhary last played for India A, during the tour to South Africa last year. Since then, he has seen a relatively younger Khaleel steal the march over him. Choudhary is conscious of the stiff competition, but insists that he only wants to focus on improving his performances.

Brief scores: Rajasthan 171/2 (Lomror 75*) lead Haryana 118 (Harshal 53*, Aniket 5-45, Khaleel 3-33) by 53 runs in Jaipur.