Kolkata Knight Riders pacer Sandeep Warrier wants to learn from fellow KKR seamers Pat Cummins and Lockie Ferguson in IPL 2021.
Warrier, who will be playing his third season with KKR, has come a long way in rediscovering himself as a bowler. T20s made him a thinking cricketer and helped him realise the importance of time management.
'The day when KKR picked up Pat Cummins, I messaged Abhishek sir (KKR Assistant Coach Abhishek Nayar) saying 'I'm not going to let him go away from me. I'll be behind him throughout the two months, you just tell me how I do that',' Warrier said.
'He is one of the best bowlers you can have right now in the team. I would want to learn from him a lot, not only about T20 cricket or white-ball cricket but also Test cricket,' Warrier, who plays for Kerala in domestic cricket, added. I
'I want to learn how he approaches the game or reacts to certain situations. It will be good to learn from both Lockie and Pat,' KKR's Web site quoted Warrier as saying.
Warrier's journey from a net bowler for Royal Challengers Bangalore to playing for KKR has been a story worth telling. His zeal to learn from his colleagues and coaches has made him a mature bowler in a short time.
A poor domestic season (2017-2018) is all that it took for Warrier to 'strengthen his weaknesses and sharpen his strengths.'
In the second match of his debut season against RCB in 2019, Warrier dismissed Chris Gayle and K L Rahul.
'Previously, I never used to bowl the knuckleball or the slow ones, so I started working on that and my yorkers after a bad Ranji season in 2017-2018,' Warrier said, adding, 'I used to work a lot on my strengths. But after that season I used to work a lot on my weaknesses.'
'As a bowler, you are bound to get hit in T20s. But no matter what, the comeback you give in a short time is what matters,' he said.
'So, when I realised that, I started thinking more on the need to integrate what can be done, so that I can minimise the number of bad balls. I guess that's what gave me success.'
