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Meet M Siddharth – an unusual spinner who swings the ball

After almost ten years in Indonesia, his family returned to Chennai so he could play professional cricket.

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Coach Justin Langer of the Lucknow Super Giants disclosed his first discussion with his little-known left-arm fingerspinner M Siddharth following the team’s victory over Royal Challengers Bengaluru at the Chinnaswamy Stadium. It concerned Virat Kohli.

“I saw him [Siddharth] bowl an arm ball and I said, ‘Hey Sid, you reckon you can get Virat out for us?'” Langer said, before mimicking Siddharth responding “Yes, sir!” with a vigorous nod and a big smile.

After Siddharth did indeed get rid of Kohli for his first-ever IPL wicket, Langer was speaking. In his lone IPL match, he hushed the biassed crowd at the Chinnaswamy by taking on one of the top hitters at a pitch that is harsh to spinners. Siddharth took a slower pace, gained control, and had Kohli skewing a leading edge to backward point for 22 after he had darted in rapid, hard-length inswingers.

A bowling inswinger with a left-arm fingerspinner? Siddharth is therefore not your typical left-arm spinner. He bowls with an arm ball that swings, much like Imad Wasim. Similar to Imad and Akeal Hosein of the West Indies, Siddharth swings the ball into the right-handers with his index finger, seam upright and canted towards the fine leg. In order to divert attention from right-handers, traditional left-arm spinners typically bowl with the seam pointing towards the first slip.

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M Siddharth caught up with his childhood hero Irfan Pathan in Bengaluru

Siddharth’s senior teammates at Tamil Nadu, R Ashwin and R Sai Kishore, also swing the new ball, although not as quickly as Siddharth does—115 kph. For this reason, Super Giants supported him to bowl against Kohli and Faf du Plessis with the new ball in the auction, bidding up to INR 2.4 crore for him.

“I’ve been bowling that [swinging arm] ball since childhood,” Siddharth, 25, said in Bengaluru. “I’ve been working on it as well, but I feel it’s something that comes naturally to me.

“I’ve always dreamt of taking his [Kohli’s] wicket. I mean you can ask anyone in this world, and he will tell the biggest wicket you can ever take. So, I’m really, really happy.”

Siddharth’s path to the IPL has been a convoluted and protracted one. Due to his father’s job, the family relocated from Chennai to Indonesia when the child was just one month old and stayed there for almost ten years. In addition, his father Manimaran participated in the Hong Kong Super Sixes competition and played a little club cricket. Siddharth’s family relocated to Chennai so he could have access to the greatest facilities after he made the decision to turn professional.

Siddharth’s instructors believed he lacked the quickness necessary to develop into a left-arm quick, despite his ambition of being the next Irfan Pathan. His ability to swing the ball persisted, even though he was urged to adapt to left-arm spin.

Siddharth made his T20 debut in 2019 against a formidable Mumbai team in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy, right out of age-group cricket. He bowled Prithvi Shaw and Suryakumar Yadav with fizzing inswingers.

However, in the five years that have passed, he has only participated in six Twenty20 matches for Tamil Nadu; Sai Kishore, Washington Sundar, Varun Chakravarthy, and Ashwin are all ranked higher of him. Despite the Impact Player rule being in effect, Siddharth was left out of Tamil Nadu’s roster of 15 for the most recent Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy. He felt crushed by the selection snub.

His IPL possibilities were similarly restricted until this season. During his time with the Delhi Capitals (2021) and Kolkata Knight Riders (2020), he did not receive a game. After Siddharth was not purchased at the auction in 2022 and 2023, he moved on to work with AC Prathiban, the former off-spinner for Puducherry and Tamil Nadu who has previously trained Varun and Washington, to refine his arm ball.

“When Siddharth was a medium-pacer, it might have been easier to swing it with two fingers. With left-arm spin, it was slightly difficult to bowl the arm ball with one finger, but he found a way to bowl it,” Prathiban told ESPNcricinfo. “We worked on the areas and the lengths he had to bowl. We used to throw him challenges at the nets. Some batters attack it while others are defensive against it.

“We also worked on creating different angles for the arm ball – whether coming closer to the stumps or moving away from the stumps. He used to do a lot of spot-bowling for that ball on different wickets, including astro-turf pitches and wickets that don’t assist bowling. The more you practice, you get a feel of it. That’s what he tells me: ‘Anna (brother), I have a good feel for the ball now and I’m good with this’.”

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In the 2023 TNPL, Siddharth developed into a highly skilled new-ball swing bowler for Shahrukh Khan’s Lyca Kovai Kings. Among bowlers who had bowled at least 100 balls, he had the greatest economy rate (5.61) in that particular competition. Because of the very narrow boundaries at some sites, talent scouts are generally hesitant to choose hitters from the TNPL, but bowlers have found it to be a useful testing ground. Just ask Varun and T Natarajan, two current IPL stars.

While providing commentary during the TNPL, Sridharan Sriram, a former all-rounder for Tamil Nadu and current assistant coach for LSG, noticed Swingin’ Siddharth. He has also been utilised in the IPL in that new-ball role by Sriram and LSG. Until now, Siddharth has bowled five overs in the powerplay.

Siddharth got off to a good start against Shikhar Dhawan in his IPL debut, but the Punjab Kings captain took him for two fours and a six in the following over.

Ashwin, who was Siddharth’s teammate at both Tennessee and the Capitals, stated in one of his YouTube videos that scouts and coaches advised Siddharth to be more aggressive against left-handed hitters. Taking that advise to heart, Siddharth has been progressively expanding his repertoire behind the scenes. When he faces his TNPL teammate and spin disruptor Sai Sudharsan of the Gujarat Titans on Sunday, he could need to use the variations.

“Yes, we have worked on that [away-going] ball,” Prathiban says. “But first he has to settle in with his stock ball. If you take his domestic numbers in the Vijay Hazare Trophy, he didn’t find it difficult to bowl against left-handers. He bowled 11 balls in the powerplay to a left-hander on IPL debut and that’s a positive sign. Among the three fours to Dhawan, one was edged, and Dhawan is extremely good against left-arm spinners. It’s very important to identify that defensive one-run ball against a left-hander.

Siddharth may now relish his IPL breakthrough. The wait paid off when Kohli’s wicket allowed him to meet Pathan, his childhood hero, in Bengaluru.

“He asked me how I started my cricket career and then he wished me luck and he said he even has the same hairstyle as me,” Siddharth said with a smile. “So, we were just talking about it.”

Siddharth has already covered a great distance, travelling from Indonesia to Lucknow via Tamil Nadu, Kolkata, and Delhi, and he’s only getting started.

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