Madhwal is a good, thinking bowler and very confident: TA Sekar, MI talent scout

Madhwal is a good, thinking bowler and very confident: TA Sekar, MI talent scout

The story goes that Akash Madhwal’s response, when congratulated by the Hindi broadcast team on his best bowling performance (3/31) against Gujarat Titans in a league match at the Wankhade a fortnight ago, was that his best was yet to come.

Madhwal walked the talk with four for 37 against Sunrisers Hyderabad in the last league match last Sunday. That performance, along with Cameron Green’s maiden T20 hundred, helped Mumbai Indians win and finish fourth to qualify for the playoffs.

And, on Wednesday, the 29-year-old right-arm medium-pacer from Uttarakhand set a new record for himself, taking a highly-impressive 5-5 in 3.3 overs, to help Mumbai Indians trounce Lucknow Super Giants by 81 runs and make it to Qualifier 2 for a face-off with Gujarat Titans in Ahmedabad on May 26.

All these only speak about the confidence level of Madhwal, being able to tell that his best was yet to come and to keep improving his figures, game after game.
Madhwal’s 5/5 is the fifth best bowling figures in IPL history, and the second-best for Mumbai Indians, after Alzarri Joseph’s 6/12 (vs SRH, 2019). Madhwal’s 5/5 is also the best bowling figures in IPL playoffs and the most economical five-wicket hauls in IPL, with an economy rate of 1.43.
Madhwal still not content with the five-wicket haul

“I want to do even better. Need to take more wickets and execute the plans,” he told his MI team-mate Suryakumar Yadav in a chat on iplt20.com, after the match.

In fact, Madhwal was first drafted into the MI squad late in 2022 for Rs 20 lakh as a replacement for the injured Surya, though he did not get to play. He was retained by the management ahead of the December 2022 auctions and was told to be prepared for the 2023 season.

With a tally of 13 wickets in seven IPL matches so far, Madhwal’s victims include some of the best and in-form batsmen, including Devon Conway of CSK; Wriddhiman Saha, David Miller and Shubman Gill of Titans; Mayank Agarwal, Heinrich Klaasen and Harry Brook of SRH; and Ayush Badoni and Nicholas Pooran of LSG.

Probably, the best delivery he bowled was to Pooran, pitching outside off stump from round the wicket and inducing the left-hander to edge behind for a golden duck in what was a Test-match style of making the batsman nick one behind.

The rise of Madhwal

It may be surprising to many about the rise of Madhwal from a humble background in Uttarakhand, playing tennis ball cricket until about six years ago, appearing as a net bowler for Royal Challengers Bangalore in 2019 before finally being spotted by the highly-proficient talent scouts of Mumbai Indians two years ago, including the likes of former India cricketers TA Sekar, Kiran More and Robin Singh.

Sekar, the former India paceman and now advisor and talent scout of Mumbai Indians, was elated with Madhwal’s miserly figures against LSG in Chennai. Sekar, the 67-year-old pace guru, told moneycontrol.com: “If you are not smart, you cannot survive in T20 cricket. You should bowl according to the situation, according to the ground and according to the player.

You cannot bowl day in and day out, on the top of the off-stump in T20s. The moment the batsman lines you up, you cannot take wickets.”
Madhwal impressed Sekar with Wednesday’s scintillating performance, after he saw him first at the domestic T20 tournament, the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy, two seasons ago.

Reverse swing the clincher

Sekar said: “The first time I saw him during the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy matches in 2021-23 in Sultanpur (Haryana), he looked good. The talent-spotting group in MI exchanged notes about Madhwal and we agreed he was a talent to be looked at. All of them were of the opinion that because of his action, he could reverse- swing the ball well. Though we cannot compare Madhwal to Lasith Malinga, he is certainly one of the better bowlers we have. Captain Rohit Sharma now has got a go-to bowler after two of our main bowlers, Jasprit Bumrah and Jofra Archer, pulled out after getting injured.”

Madhwal, like other talents spotted by MI scouts, became a net bowler for MI and picked up the tricks of the trade there. “What I found good in him was even in trials he set his field. We monitor our net bowlers whenever they play in domestic tournaments. Most of our net bowlers are on probation where you can work on them and make them better. Madhwal was subsequently made Uttarakhand captain,” Sekar said.

Madhwal, an engineering student, understood the concept of leather ball cricket quickly to now become a key bowler for MI. Sekar added: “He is very confident. In the selection trials, looking at his body language and setting his own field, speaks a lot about this bowler.”

Madhwal makes his IPL debut

Madhwal made his IPL debut against Punjab Kings at the Wankhade, the sixth match of Mumbai Indians. The MI management introduced him into the league according to the conditions as they suited his type of bowling. Sekar explained: “Looking at the pitches, Wadhwal would be more suitable during the second half of the tournament as the ball would start reversing and there’s not much bounce. Madhwal is a good, thinking bowler.”
Though nervous and he went wicketless, conceding 37 in three overs on his debut, Madhwal kept getting better and grew in confidence with every match he played, justifying the faith his captain Rohit Sharma had in him. His three for 31 against Titans in a winning cause became better with four for 37 against SRH and then came his best of 5/5 against LSG on Wednesday night to earn his first man of the match award.

“We have found a good Indian fast bowler who consistently bowls 140 kmph. He has got a good yorker, can beat the batsmen by pace. He should be handled well like how CSK is handling Matheesha Pathirana,” Sekar said.

Tennis ball background helps

With the tennis ball cricket background, Madhwal has used the learnings from there into leather ball cricket, yorker being the key weapon. Madhwal said on Wednesday: “I learnt to bowl yorkers while playing tennis ball cricket and implement that here. If you err in length, you will be hit for six. So there is only one option and that is to bowl yorkers. You have to be perfect with yorkers in tennis ball cricket and that is what I tried to do here.”

Madhwal could be joining the list of bowlers who graduated from tennis ball cricket to playing for India, including the likes of Munaf Patel and Umesh Yadav. Though it is early days for Madhwal, he is someone who can go places if groomed well.

What is it that makes one a successful leather ball cricketer, after having started with tennis ball cricket? Sekar said: “If you look at the 1970s and 1980s, the West Indies bowlers played a lot of tennis ball cricket. Not all of them graduate to higher levels. Because the tennis ball is light, it is difficult to bowl fast. With the cricket ball weighing 156 grams, naturally they will bowl fast. Everybody starts with tennis ball cricket in their neighbourhood.”
Current India bowling coach and former Test bowler, Paras Mhambrey, recently spoke of the importance of tennis ball cricket in the development of a cricketer. He said: “Tennis ball cricket provides a platform for players in India. It is very popular in India. Players graduate to become professionals from tennis ball cricket. In T20 cricket, carrom ball is becoming popular. It has emerged from tennis ball cricket.”

Aditya Tare, the former Ranji Trophy-winning captain of Mumbai, and a former MI player who represented Uttarakhand last season, told moneycontrol.com about the hard-working Madhwal:
"He is a great guy, very calm and composed. He started playing leather ball cricket only a few years back although he played a lot of tennis ball cricket until then. He was telling me that playing tennis ball games helped him a lot in dealing with the pressures of death bowling. He is tactically very good and has a top-class temperament. Also he has done B-Tech before starting cricket professionally."

From tennis ball cricket to leaving his engineering job and following his passion of playing cricket, from being marked as a death-over specialist to sharing the new ball after winning the confidence of his captain, and winning matches for MI, Madhwal is certainly making the right moves. “I got the opportunity and grabbed it,” said Madhwal smiling.

MI skipper Rohit Sharma had the last word on his latest match-winner. Rohit said at the post-match presentation: “He was part of the season last year as a support bowler. We drafted him into the squad but he did not play. Once Jofra was gone, we needed someone to bowl at the back end. Having seen him enough, I was confident that he would get the job done for us. He has a lot of skills, good attitude and shows a lot of character as well. That was pleasing to see about him. A lot of credit also goes to the talent scouts. Over the years, we have seen many players play for MI and gone on to play for India.”

Those words from Rohit should be encouraging Madhwal to continue with his passion and realise his dream of playing for the country one day. But, for now, it is Titans next on Friday for Madhwal.