Chennai: Gujarat Titans have the best spinner in this year's edition of the Indian Premier League. That is not a surprising sentence but it's actually R Sai Kishore who has, slowly but surely, stepped out of multiple shadows to carve out a place for himself.
On Sunday night, no doubt aided by a slow, sluggish black soil deck in Hyderabad, he once again showcased his wares to pick up two more wickets for Gujarat Titans. In 10 previous matches before this season, he had picked up only 13 wickets in 10 matches. 2025? He's already on eight, the best slow bowler after Noor Ahmad in terms of wickets. In terms of dot balls, he's already bowled 36, only behind Varun Chakravarthy in terms of spinners in this particular metric.
If economy is your thing, he's the third best spinner behind Chakravarthy and Kuldeep Yadav (minimum 10 overs).
It shows several things. One, he's outbowling his more illustrious teammate Khan, not an easy thing to do. But he's also emerged as a solid wicket-taking option for Titans across the middle-overs. In the process, he's making up for lost time.
After spending a few years at Chennai Super Kings where his role was off the field (he didn't play a single game as he was below Ravindra Jadeja), the Titans picked him up. They gave him a few matches in their debut season in 2022 but he once again was forced to watch on from the sidelines in 2023 as they preferred the sexier wristspin option of Noor Ahmad.
A freak golf injury put paid to his chances halfway through 2024 but he has upskilled himself in the interim. In theory, left-arm fingerspinners aren't as valued as wristspinners because of the novelty and mystery aspect. It's why the likes of Yadav go for big money. Also, considering there's a steady supply of left-arm fingerspin, Kishore knew he had to stand out from the crowd.
He's now armed with a carrom ball, a weapon not usually found in an arsenal of an SLA. 'To be relevant in T20 cricket, you have to keep evolving," he told the host broadcaster after employing the carrom ball to remove Krunal Pandya against Royal Challengers Bengaluru. "I have been practicing it for the last 3-4 years but have not bowled it anywhere. It is like a carrom ball so I get more dip on it."
The other Sai, Sudharsan, was all praise for his statemate when he had come for the post-match press conference. "He understands the game, understands the situation and uses his speeds, angles. I think that is why he's bowling the way he is."
The point about speeds and angles — think spin as the world of art colliding with the world of physics — is something a lot of spinners work with. Kishore showed why he has become a master at it. Against Heinrich Klaasen, one of the best batters off spin, he got one to come in from a back of a length before taking the leg stump. It was the change of pace as the previous few deliveries were in the 83 kph mark. The wicket-taking delivery was 11 clicks quicker and the South African keeper was done for pace.
In an unbroken four over spell, he also accounted for Nitish Reddy to help restrict the hosts to 152/8.
Brief scores: Hyderabad 152/8 in 20 ovs (Nitish 31, Klaasen 27, Siraj 4/17, Kishore 2/24, Krishna 2/25) lost to Gujarat 153/3 in 16.4 ovs (Gill 61 n.o, Sundar 49, Rutherford 35 n.o, Shami 2/28).