Laxman Sivaramakrishnan keen on India spin bowling coach role ahead of 2019 World Cup
With reports that BCCI are interested in hiring a spin bowling consultant, former Indian leg spinner Laxman Sivaramakrishnan has put his name in the hat and admitted that he is keen on taking on the role ahead of the 2019 World Cup in England. While he admitted that all of India's spinners are good, he also added that they need "fine-tuning".
Speaking to TOI about his interest in the role, the former Indian leggie said: "I'd like to help our spinners till the World Cup in the role of spin consultant/ coach, if the BCCI approaches me with an offer. The middle overs - from 11 to 40 - is the period when we need to pick up the wickets. If our spinners take five wickets in this period for about 150, they'd have done their job. Otherwise, you're looking at a potentially dangerous situation, where the opposition's middle order is set to lunch into a slog in the last 10 overs."
The 52-year-old who is currently working as a commentator was seen having a word with the Indian spin trio of Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja and Kuldeep Yadav on several occasions during the first Test between India and West Indies at Rajkot, which ended in a record-breaking victory for the hosts.
"All our spinners are good, but need fine-tuning," he remarked before going into detail about what each spinner needs to do. He added that Kuldeep's balance needs to improve while he added that Chahal needs to work on bowling outside off more often.
Speaking about Kuldeep, he said: "Kuldeep Yadav's balance while delivering the ball needs to improve. His body isn't synchronized properly, and his arms aren't rotating in a round manner while delivering the ball."
"Yuzvendra Chahal tends to drift to the leg and middle, which means the batsmen can look to smash him to mid-wicket, which is likely to be vacant since the two fielders on the on-side are likely to be stationed at deep square leg (for the sweep shot) and long-on. If he bowls on or outside off stump, the batsmen will be forced to drive him on the off side, where he can have three fielders - two at point, cover, and long off protecting him. His googly will also become more dangerous then - of the batsman misses it, he's likely to be bowled or LBW," he added about Chahal.