Kamal Ghorui
CHENNAI: Chennai Super Kings are having a middling season, but medium-pacer Anshul Kamboj seems to be their breakout star. With 17 scalps in nine matches at an economy rate of 7.54, including 3-32 against Mumbai Indians on Saturday, Kamboj has been the leader of the CSK attack, both in powerplay and slog overs. With the wickets of Robin Minz and Hardik Pandya in the 18th and 20th overs at Chepauk on Saturday, Kamboj became the first bowler this season to claim 10 wickets in the death overs.The right-arm seamer has been treating the death overs like a closing act he had rehearsed to perfection. He has been extensively going around the stumps, especially to righthand batters, switching his lengths according to the phase of play and has landed the yorkers regularly.CSK head coach Stephen Fleming doesn’t think Kamboj’s heroics have come as a surprise. “Last year, he was really good. He’s worked hard with Eric Simons (bowling coach) around the concept of deathbowling and he has worked during the year to master that,” said Fleming.Last IPL season, Kamboj picked up eight wickets in eight games at an economy of 8.00. Shortly after, he stepped onto the biggest stage, earning his India Test debut, but his returns against England weren’t strong enough to secure him a long run.This season, though, he has returned with more bite and moved into a central role in CSK’s pace attack after Khaleel Ahmed’s injury.Fleming said Kamboj worked on angles and execution in pre-season. “During pre-season, he bowled with open wickets and we got an understanding of the angles — what he can and can’t do from certain sides of the wicket and it has worked out well,” he added.India have quite a bit of cricket going ahead after IPL across formats and Kamboj’s stellar show could soon push him back into the national fastbowling setup. But for Kamboj, team performance outweighs personal milestones. Ahead of the clash against MI, he had said: “My complete focus is on how to contribute to the team’s win.”CSK go into must-win mode from Tuesday and the team will hope Kamboj keeps walking the talk.
