TIRUNELVELI: If we say chinaman is a rare breed, then ambidextrous bowlers are rarest of the lot. It’s not every day you will come across a player who can bowl with both hands and be equally effective.
VB Kanchi Veerans’ Mokit Hariharan is one such find in Tamil Nadu Premier League this year.
The 18-year-old hogged the limelight during Kanchi’s clash against Dindigul Dragons when he bowled left-arm orthodox spin to the right-handed N Jagadeesan before switching to right-arm off-spin for the left-handed C Hari Nishant. That match even caught the eyes of South Africa performance video analyst Prasanna Agoram who heaped praise on him on Twitter.
Mokit is only the second Indian ambidextrous bowler after Vidarbha’s Akshay Karnewar. Apart from them, Sri Lanka’s Kamindu Mendis was the recent one to make headlines when he bowled with both arms in 2018 ICC U-19 World Cup. Mokit’s ambidexterity doesn’t extend to his batting, but the southpaw is more than useful with the willow — his 77 off 50 against Dindigul and batting at the top for the U-16 state team from 2014-16 was a testimony to that. But Mokit started initially with fast bowling before bowling off-spin on a regular basis.
Hailing from Chennai, Mokit’s interest in the sport began much earlier when he used to be a regular spectator as a three-year-old, watching his father R Ravi Sankar play for Railways. “My father played cricket for nearly 30 years. He would take me to the ground when I was a kid. And gradually I developed interest and started training under my dad at the age of eight,” he told Express.
It was when Mokit started training under his father-cum-coach when Sankar first advised him to try bowling with both hands to see which one suits him better. But interestingly, he was able to spin with both hands and hence began specialising the skill that only a few in the world possessed. According to the match situation and the kind of batsman he is bowling to, he switches between right-arm and left-arm. His elder brother Jagannath Srinivas also plays for Siechem Madurai Panthers in TNPL 3.
“Like any other player, I thought I started with medium pace. But I was not satisfied with it. So I tried off-spin and it came off well from both hands. But I am more comfortable with right-arm. For the past two years, I have been practising both.”
Looking into the future, Mokit doesn’t find a need to specialise in one method of bowling or another. Though he is yet to pick up a wicket in TNPL, he can be the one to look out for if he turns this skill to the best outcome.
srinidhi.pr@newindianexpress.com
Brief scores: Chepauk Super Gillies 120 in 19.3 ovs (Aarif 36; Silambarasan 3/16) lost to Dindigul Dragons 121/1 in 13.3 ovs (Jagadeesan 63 n.o, Nishaanth 34).