ON January 23, 2026 after scoring his first international 50 in over 15 months, India captain Suryakumar Yadav’s gesture caught the attention of the cricketing world. Surya, walking back after completing the chase against New Zealand in the second T20I at Raipur, touched the feet of Raghavendra Dvgi (known as Raghu) — a throwdown specialist with the team.
It seemed like a 'thank you' from Surya’s part for the help and hard work from Raghu in the nets. It was not the first time an Indian player credited the sidearm specialist in public. Known for his sharp 150kph projectiles, Raghu has been with the Indian team for more than 15 years and several players have spoken about his contribution, including the likes of Virat Kohli. The former captain had attributed the improvement of Indian batters against high pace to Raghu and the other throwdown specialists with the team.
The current sidearm trio — Raghu, Dayananda Garani and Nuwan Seneviratne — are the silent support cast. Nuwan offers the speciality of being a left-hander while Garani’s high-arm release provides a variation. Then there is Raghu, who is called a ‘pocket dynamite’. They feed each batter hundreds of balls every training session from 18 yards or fewer.
It doesn’t matter if the Sun is beating down or if it’s windy or chilly... they are there. Quite often, they come in early with a kit bag filled with balls, roboarms, setting up the place around the practice nets. Depending on who comes out to bat, they deliver different lengths to the batters. They also feed balls for range-hitting, something that has become common in the T20 era, while also assisting during fielding drills. To put it precisely, they are the first to enter the ground and last to leave, tirelessly toiling to assist the players in every possible way.
So, where did it all begin? How did sidearm specialists come into the picture? What is their role in a cricket team or on an individual player’s development? Renowned coach Biju George gave a lowdown. “As a batter, facing a fast bowler, there are so many cues there. But when you face a sidearm, most of these cues are absent. So you have to react faster, you have to read faster,” George told TNIE.
“When you practise against difficult situations, bowlers who are difficult to pick, it will be easy during the match. Throwdown specialists, for example, Raghu, and the guys I have seen are very accurate. When the batter wants to play a certain ball at a particular speed, you want somebody to check a ball which moves away at 140kph, pitching at good length, these guys can come up and do it any time. That is why it is very important. A throwdown specialist is vital for a team and the support staff,” he added. The former India women fielding coach calls Raghu a pioneer. After all, Raghu was the first to join the Indian team as a throwdown specialist, and many others have taken it up as a career over the years.
One of them is Khaleel Shariff, a sidearm specialist with RPSG Group’s teams in both IPL and SA20 leagues. Hailing from a lower-middle class family in Kolar, Shariff used to be an aspiring fast bowler in Bengaluru first division leagues. He used to travel from Kolar to the city every day for training at the KIOC academy. Once he chanced upon giving throwdowns to Mayank Agarwal in the nets more than a decade ago and the Karnataka batter was impressed. From thereon, he took it seriously, working with the batters in the academy, then in Karnataka Premier League, and Tamil Nadu Premier League before former Karnataka all-rounder K Gowtham helped him get an opportunity with Rajasthan Royals.
Shariff remembers a call he got from Yuvraj Singh that changed his life in 2017. “He gave me a call randomly and said ‘Hi Khaleel. This is Yuvraj Singh’. I thought somebody was making fun of me. Coming from a small town like KGF, travelling every day to Bengaluru in a train, why would I expect Yuvraj to give me a call. Then he said it was him and asked if I could come to NCA the next day. Once I started working with him, people around NCA started to notice me. I have worked with Dinesh Karthik, Vijay Shankar and the Indian team when they were in NCA. That is when I got my recognition and then I got a chance to be a part of IPL teams. That was a turning point for me and financially it helped a lot,” recalled Shariff who credits Gowtham and former India batter Robin Uthappa for supporting him through his career.
He has also worked with the Australian men’s team whenever they visit after working with Steve Smith and Andrew McDonald during his time at RR. From staying at KIOC academy, now Shariff has moved to Bengaluru along with his family because of the opportunities that being a throwdown specialist gave. “I made sure even my family moved here to Bengaluru,” he said with a smile during a virtual interaction with TNIE.
Trying for foothold
Meanwhile, Parmod Kumar took to sidearm after being inspired by Raghu’s videos. The youngest in the family, the responsibility of taking care of his mother fell on Parmod when his father passed away in 2019. He moved from Bihar to New Delhi, learnt to give throwdowns and now has been with the Cricket Association of Uttarakhand (CAU) over the last six years. “I used to give personal coaching to the kids. I decided to add a sidearm and started watching Raghu bhai's videos. Gradually, I understood how to do it and soon Ranji Trophy and IPL players started calling me to train. Navneet Mishra (manager, CAU), and Piyush Raghuvanshi (video analyst) and the batting coach have helped me a lot. All I can say is that it is my father’s blessing,” Parmod told TNIE.
However, despite his six years of experience with the Ranji team, Parmod is still waiting for a chance to move to the next level. “I have been sharing throwdown and sidearm videos on Instagram since 2020,” says Parmod who has more than 20000 followers. One scroll through his profile is enough to notice the hundreds of short clips and videos with several state and IPL cricketers over the years. “I have all the variations... in-swing, out-swing, reverse-swing. I do everything according to the batter’s needs. I have also worked with a women’s team during the Delhi Premier League. I am trying for a chance to work with any of the IPL teams,” he added.
The one thing that George, Shariff and Parmod attest to is that being a throwdown specialist is not about bowling fast or variations but about fulfilling the necessities of the batters and the goals they want to achieve. Before every session, they discuss with the batter and the coach on the objective of the session and what needs to be done. And if they notice anything technical or otherwise over the course of the session, it is conveyed to the coach and from there to the batter. Elite cricketers calling up a sidearm specialist for a session is a norm these days and they develop an understanding and rapport over time.
Shariff remembered a three-hour session he had with Ben Stokes during the 2020 IPL alongside Zubin Bharucha (Director High Performance at RR). When Stokes scored a century in the days that followed, he gifted that bat to Shariff. “He came straight into the dressing room and said this is a present to Khaleel. He brought the bat, wrote ‘No.1 sidearmer’, signed it and gifted it to me in front of everyone. I have framed it and kept it in my house,” Shariff said.
Monetary benefits
As it is the case with any other profession, sidearmers will also have to work their way up. It is understood that the payscale of a throwdown specialist varies based on experience, city and state. In some cities, they get paid ₹1000-1500 per session while they get ₹400-500 in some cities. From full-time employment with monthly salary to annual contracts to Ranji contracts, different state associations provide different kinds of contracts, with a rough starting salary around ₹3-3.5 lakh per annum.
Once they get a chance to work with an IPL franchise or leagues or BCCI, the financial benefits are far higher. IPL franchises too provide different kinds of contracts – full-time across leagues, season-wise, etc. — and the payscale begins anywhere between ₹4-5 lakhs per season. With the volume of cricket played in the country and the number of state leagues coming, sidearm specialist as a career option is becoming more and more popular as a viable career opportunity.
Another viable career option
Aspiring cricketers or even people who are interested in the sport and want to be associated with it are interested in becoming a sidearmer. And unlike the past, there are actual throwdown clinics where people attend workshops to learn the skill sets, how to take care of the shoulders, variations and more. After all, throwing hundreds of balls at pace every training session through the calendar year is no mean feat.
Gabriel Ben Kurian, throwdown specialist with Royal Challengers Bengaluru, knows it all too well. He conducted workshops for aspiring throwdown specialists in Kochi where around 105 students took part. “I conducted four workshops for them. In the first two workshops, there were 150 odd people. Then they were filtered and again taught the advanced techniques of throwdown. Like how to bowl, how to cut the air or how to do variations, etc. The basic thing in throwdown workshops was how to gain the accuracy, control and how to maintain the speed. Also how to prevent the injury while doing throwdowns, what are the things needed to be done. We have training and of course the practical aspects for the throwdowns. It was like a person-to-person workshop. We fixed a date, went to a ground or facility and did the workshops,” Gabriel told TNIE.
“You just need basic knowledge like this. There is no need to be like you have to represent the state or play at some level. We just need to have that basic cricket knowledge of what a throwdown is. We need to know where to bowl, where to make the batter play. We need that basic knowledge about what the batter is working on — short ball or good length and so on,” he added.
Within the game's rewarding but unforgiving ecosystem, the importance of a throwdown specialist can't be overstated. Here's one example to ram home that point. All teams will have two kinds of training sessions. Mandatory or optional. For throwdown specialists, though, there are no public holidays. There are no weekends. For them, every day is a Monday.