Ish Sodhi has been a stalwart of leg-spin bowling for New Zealand over the years. Making his mark in the shortest format, Sodhi has represented New Zealand 142 times and is the Black Caps’ leading wicket-taker in T20Is, with 165 scalps. Sodhi has also played 54 ODIs and 21 Tests, taking 64 wickets and 58 wickets, respectively, and has been a recognisable name in the Black Caps’ side throughout the years.
Across his career, Sodhi has had various famous battles against the Indian team, where he has come up on the favourable side of results. Being a journeyman across the T20 franchise circuit, Sodhi has also found himself in the IPL, playing eight matches for the Rajasthan Royals across two seasons.
Sodhi named India’s Test stalwart Cheteshwar Pujara as one of the most difficult batters he found to bowl at. He revealed a humorous anecdote from a warm-up game where he asked Pujara about his practice routine, finding it difficult to get the batter out. He compared it with bowling to former New Zealand teammate Kane Williamson, who also possessed a similarly solid defence.
Sodhi has also rubbed shoulders with top spinners from India, but mentioned Kuldeep Yadav as a bowler he had learnt a lot from. Sodhi outlined how the Indian left-arm wrist-spinner changed his action and run-up to be able to bowl flatter, which came as a requirement for modern T20 cricket.
In a candid chat with CricTracker, Sodhi revealed the challenges he faced when bowling to Pujara, and elaborated on his learnings from watching the Indian spin bowlers.
Excerpts from the Interview
Who’s the most underrated Indian batter you’ve faced?
“The most underrated Indian batter. I mean, I don’t think he’s necessarily underrated, but I think these days, we always tend to talk about T20 cricket and, you know, the white ball stuff and IPL and things like that. But I think one guy that I have a lot of admiration for is Cheteshwar Pujara. Like, you know, that guy just, you can’t get him out. You know, he’ll stand at the crease for hours and hours and hours and hours. And I remember one day, we sat down on the sideline. I think we were playing like a warm-up game or something. And I said, Puj, do you bat every day? Like, you know, in the nets, do you bat every day? When you’re at home, do you bat every day? And he said, sometimes, I take Sundays off. I was like, this guy loves batting. So, yeah, but Pujara, I think sometimes you bowl to him and it feels like, it’s a similar feeling you get when you bowl to Kane Williamson. It feels like he’s got a pillow in his hand. And, you know, as soon as the ball hits their bat, no matter how much energy you put into the ball, it feels like it’s a pillow and there’s no energy left in the ball. So that’s definitely something I think makes him a really amazing player.”
You’ve praised Indian spinners like Ashwin, Jadeja, and Chahal for being generous with their knowledge — what’s one trick or mindset they shared that changed your game?
“I suppose that, you know, it’s challenging with those guys because they’re finger spinners. And, you know, I suppose, I think most of the time you sort of, you know, as a young spinner and like I say, I’m 33 and I still feel like I haven’t, you know, understood my game fully. I’m still learning my game at the moment. And so, yeah, I feel like one of the best things that I learned, I suppose watching Kuldeep Yadav was one thing. I didn’t really speak to him a lot about it, but I remember he, for a period there, decided to change his actions slightly and his momentum to the crease to bowl slightly faster and flatter because that’s what, you know, the modern game required. And it was interesting to hear his take on how different that was for him physically and how much, you know, work he had to put into his game and his fitness to be able to do it for long periods of time. So, I think that was really cool. And I suppose the game is always moving and so you always have to move with the game. And if you’re, I suppose, lucky to be around long enough, especially in T20 cricket, you have to adapt your game. So, yeah, that was one thing I remember quite fondly.”
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