G. S. Vivek

Chandigarh, October 9

He’s raring to grab the new ball, run in hard and get started. Sreesanth admits he’s excited about bowling his next delivery in international cricket. So what’s so special about it? “I am on a hat-trick yaar, and I am planning to grab it this time,” he says.

Sreesanth got two wickets with his last two deliveries in the third one-dayer in Hyderabad, but was rested in Chandigarh. “Whenever I get an opportunity again to play, I will be focussed on my aim. “I will bowl my natural ball and that will come in for the right-handers, or I will bowl full, fast and straight first-up,” he says.

Sreesanth has faced the ‘split hat-trick’ chance once before too. “You know last time, I bowled that natural out-swing in Abu Dhabi and left-handed Salman Butt was playing. That delivery just missed the off-stump. Let’s see what’s in store for me with these two left-handers (Matthew Hayden and Adam Gilchrist),” he says.

But irrespective of whether he achieves that distinction, Sreesanth has achieved something important for Team India — of bowling the slower one just as brilliantly and effectively as Venkatesh Prasad, the bowling coach now, used to do to stem the runs in the slog overs.

Prasad laughs when asked to compare his slow leg-cutters to Sreesanth’s back of the hand leg-spinners. “It’s up to you to tell me who was better at it, but from a bowling coach’s perspective, it’s been a very good change that Sreesanth has brought in. I mean, just the fact that he’s started bowling the slower one like me means I can show the world that I have passed on the tricks to my boys,” he says.

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