Tennis Ball Cricket to Penetrative Spell at Wankhede: Late-bloomer Akash Madhwal Makes an Impact | Exclusive

There was a loud cheer at the Wankhede Stadium on Friday when Mumbai Indians’ Akash Madhwal rattled Shubman Gill’s off stump, sending the Gujarat Titans batter back to the hut. This wasn’t his first scalp of the match as the seamer had earlier trapped Wriddhiman Saha in the second over of the innings and later got rid of the dangerous David Miller at the end of the 12th over.

It wasn’t an ideal match to be amongst the wickets as Madhwal’s penetrative spell was overshadowed by Suryakumar Yadav’s brilliant hundred and Rashid Khan’s all-round show featuring four wickets with the ball and later 32-ball 79 with the bat.

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Madhwal is 29 but isn’t your typical domestic workhorse who got his due late in the league. The right-armer from Roorkee had played just 22 T20 games before IPL 2023 got underway. He also featured in 17 List A and 10 First Class games for Uttarakhand. He was part of the Mumbai Indians camp last year and joined the side as a replacement for the injured Surya.

“Last year, he was with MI and around the setup. Later, he was picked because Surya (Suryakumar Yadav) was injured. This year, he performed really well in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy and he has shown what he can do in the death overs. So I think they have identified what he is capable of and how good a bowler he is," Aditya Tare, who played with Madhwal in Uttarakhand this year, said during an exclusive chat with News18 CricketNext.

Tare turned out for Uttarakhand in the last domestic season as the guest player and got to spend a lot of time with Madhwal both on and off the field. The veteran Mumbai stumper, who has spent a lot of time in the Mumbai Indians camp too, reveals Madhwal was a late starter and used to play cricket for fun.

“He is a great guy off the field, very sorted and very calm. When I spoke to him, he told me that he started cricket very late. He was doing B. Tech and played cricket just for fun. But he used to play a lot of tennis ball cricket in local tournaments," said Tare.

The deception

The fun with the soft tennis ball did serve some important lessons for Madhwal and helped him prepare for crunch situations. No wonder he wears that composed look even during high-pressure IPL fixtures and doesn’t look overawed by the opposition or star batters.

“One thing I understand is that playing tennis ball cricket helps you deal with pressure because you generally play in crunch situations. So, when we had discussions about bowling in death, he said he is used to these conditions and pressure situations. Even if he gets hit, he is so composed at that moment which just sets him apart from others," said Tare on how learning from tennis ball cricket helped Madhwal.

“If he is hit for a six first up even while playing for MI, he doesn’t come under any pressure and you would know that he is under control of everything," added the seasoned right-hander.

According to Tare, the bowlers who play a lot with the tennis ball become very deceptive in the air and it was on display at the Wankhede on Friday.

“One thing is that the guys who play a lot of tennis ball cricket are very deceptive in the air and that’s the case with Madhwal as well. He is slightly deceptive and surprises the batters a lot with his variation in the pace," quipped Tare.

Captaincy stint

Madhwal led Uttarakhand’s white-ball teams in the recent domestic tournaments and garnered praise from senior teammates. The squad was a mix of senior pros and youngsters but the relatively inexperienced seamer handled the unit well in his maiden stint as captain in Vijay Hazare Trophy and Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy.

“He was leading the white-ball tournaments. In fact, it was the first time that he was handed over the captaincy but it didn’t look as if he was leading a side for the first time. He was captaining really well, taking initiative, and possessing leadership qualities," said Tare while praising Madhwal’s captaincy.

Still early days in his career but Tare was impressed with what he saw during the 2022-23 domestic season where Madhwal picked nine wickets in seven matches in Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy 2022-23. The medium pacer also picked four wickets in six games in Vijay Hazare Trophy and had four scalps in three Ranji Trophy matches in the last season. The right-arm bowler has so far played 26 T20s where he has a total of 28 scalps and has given runs at an economy of 7.67.

“He handled everybody really well and got everyone together. On the field also, he used to take suggestions from senior guys on the side. He led really well and gave a lot of space to the senior guys and motivated the ones who were playing for the first time," he concluded.

Four games, four wickets, with three of them coming in the last game vs GT, it’s been a mixed bag for Madhwal so far, However, it will give him a lot of confidence for the remainder of the tournament and allow him more game time to put tennis ball lessons to good use.