During a media briefing at Pallekele last week, when asked by respected cricket writer Daminda Wijesuriya to describe his style of bowling, Akila Dananjaya without batting an eyelid claimed that he is a ‘mystery spinner’. He better watch out his words for mystery bowlers whether it be Jack Iverson, John Gleeson or Ajantha Mendis have not lasted the distance.
The mystery starts fading once opposition sort you out and in this day and age where video analysis is used extensively, the mystery bowlers are only short-term solutions. But the fact is Akila Dananjaya is something more than a mystery bowler.
Akila, however, is far from the finished product. The immediate task at his hand is to work on the accuracy of his off-spin, his stock delivery. It is the variations that pick you the wickets and there shouldn’t be an overdose of variation. Bowlers need to have a stock delivery to rely on.
Ajantha Mendis was a sensation when he arrived. He first made an impact with a six-wicket haul in the Asia Cup final against India and then a couple of months later in the three-Test bilateral series humbled India’s famed batting line-up comprising – Sehwag, Dravid, Tendulkar, Ganguly and Laxman. Mendis took a World Record 26 wickets, most by a bowler in a debut Test series, improving on Alec Bedser’s record that had stood for more than 60 years. But unlike Murali, who had nagging accuracy with his stock ball (and even the wrong’un), Mendis suffered as he was wayward. His fielding wasn’t the most athletic and had nothing much to boast about with the bat.
Akila, however, is different. Over the years he has developed accuracy with his stock ball. His batting is ever improving and he is not the worst fielder in the side either. He bowls both the leg-spin and the googly and more importantly he is aware that he needs to work on accuracy of both those deliveries. He seems to be getting a lot of return catches off the googly. A batsman playing with uncertainty effectively is a sitting duck.
The bad news for the batsmen is that Akila has promised to work on the carrom ball as well. Delivered using only the thumb and middle finger, the carrom ball was first used by Australian Jack Iverson in 1950s. But the delivery had gone out of fashion until Mendis reinvented it a decade ago. Now other bowlers too have got the carrom ball in their armoury with India’s Ravichandran Ashwin regularly using the variation.
Akila’s career best of six for 29 is only the second-best analysis by a bowler against South Africa, narrowly missing Sunil Narine’s record of six for 27 in Guyana. His effort saw South Africa slump to a 178 run defeat, their third worst in ODI cricket.
Skipper Angelo Mathews who has the best figures at RPS – six for 20 – had a narrow escape as Akila looked capable of running through the side single-handedly. Mathews called Akila a man of steel and praised his ability to bounce back having been carted all around the park in the previous game.
Akila has been backed as Sri Lanka’s main wicket-taking option for World Cup. Although you cannot expect conditions to be too friendly to spinners, particularly in June, with his bag of tricks he can still be a threat against any opposition.
However, can you be content with just one match winner? In the country, there’s no one who bowls at the pace and accuracy of Kagiso Rabada or pace and swing of Mitchell Starc. So the solution has to be another spinner with an ability to confuse the batsmen.
The obvious choice is Lakshan Sandakan. The left-arm wrist spinner actually fared better than Akila in the one-off T-20 International on Tuesday claiming a triple wicket maiden. But Sandakan too struggles with accuracy.
In four overs of T-20 cricket, there is a chance for you to get away with things as the opportunities for batsmen to get set and then go after you are less. But it is a different ball game when it comes to ODIs. There’s no hiding when you have got to send down ten overs.
The same happened to Indian chinaman bowler Kuldeep Yadav. He fared extremely well in ODI cricket but in Test cricket where the batsmen can play the waiting game, he has been found wanting.
However, Sandakan needs to be preserved with and if he can improve his accuracy he will turn out to be a great asset in limited overs cricket.
These are indeed exciting times and next month’s Asia Cup will give us an indication on how Head Coach Chandika Hathurusingha intends to move forward.
