The first ball of the second innings of the 2023-24 Vijay Trophy semi-final between Tamil Nadu and Haryana seemed like an event in itself. Anshul Kamboj, the Haryana pace bowler, ran with purpose to the crease. He didn’t exactly lift his front knee around stump high, but when he thumped the braced front leg and released the ball, there was a fair bit of venom behind it.
The resultant outcome was it pitched on and around middle and off-stump and Baba Aparajith was hurried into his defensive stroke. Just zoom in on the last frame of the path of that delivery and you will notice a couple of Kamboj’s traits. One of them being his ability to make the batter play from ball 1. The second one was he seemed to hit the bat hard enough on impact. Soon, Kamboj made his first incision. And it was an archetypal Kamboj delivery as it moved just enough to catch the edge of Nishaanth’s bat. Once again the southpaw was virtually forced into playing a false stroke.
Since then, his first-class record too has improved significantly, evidenced by his current average of 22.66. It includes an eight-wicket haul in a Duleep Trophy game followed by Kamboj bagging all 10 wickets versus Kerala in the Ranji Trophy.
During the same season, the writer had the first-hand experience of watching Kamboj bowl at the Chinnaswamy stadium when Haryana took on Karnataka in a Ranji game. Not for the first time, Kamboj’s template underpinned the old-school virtues of Test-match bowling. Probling the batters in the one-square foot window outside the off-stump, just enough seam movement either away, and deceptive pace.
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The delivery to KL Rahul serves as a perfect illustration of Kamboj’s simple but effective blueprint. It pitched slightly short of a good length and straightened a tad to catch the edge. Rahul had no other choice but to play at the delivery as it was very close to the top of off stump.
Just to vindicate the above-mentioned virtues, here’s Stephen Fleming with his thoughts on Kamboj’s bowling. “Kamboj is good. You see his speed at 138, 139 and it’s always deceptive. The ball obviously hits the gloves a little harder. His biggest strength is his length, and he gets the ball to wobble,” the Chennai Super Kings coach said in a press conference.
“I think he would do really great on that tour if he gets conditions that seem around and there is a little bit of swing. He is going to be an absolute handful,” he added.
Most likely Kamboj would miss out on a place in the main squad for the upcoming tour of England. However, he has been included in the India A squad to take on England Lions. So, the metronome still has a window of opportunity to impress the think-tank with his performances in those A-tour fixtures.
Just visualise Kamboj’s bowling template for a few minutes and yours truly can’t stop imagining his methods turning out to be one of the missing jigsaws in the Indian-shaped bowling puzzle, especially away from Asia.
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