UAE tour helped me to develop my skills: Rahul Singh

Our Sports Reporter

GUWAHATI: A trip to UAE with Rajasthan Royals (RR) helped to develop his bowling skills a lot, feels upcoming spinners of the state Rahul Singh. RR selected three promising bowlers from the state - Jitumoni Kalita and Mrinmoy Dutta are the two others- to assist the other bowlers in the net during the team's stay in UAE. After returning home Rahul, in a conversation with The Sentinel, shared his experience. Here is the excerpt.

The Sentinel (TS): Tell us your experience with RR.

Rahul: This tour has helped me a lot to develop my cricketing skills. I have learnt that only net practice is not enough to become a good cricketer. A bowler must apply his brain too to find out the weakness of the batsmen.

TS: Describe a little.

Rahul: We have been told by the experts that a bowler must read the batsman very quickly if he wants to dominate or get early success. We have received basic ideas too on how it would be done. Sairaj Bahutule sir helped me a lot and from time to time he shared his experience on different aspects of spin bowling. It's very nice experience.

TS: Any tips from legendary spinner Shane Warne !

Rahul: Not so. When we bowl into the net he sometimes stands behind us to watch our bowling. Only once after seeing my bowl he said, "Good delivery. Keep the ball on that spot." Those few words are still ringing in my ears.

TS: Is it different net session experience in UAE ?

Rahul: Yes. A lot of planning was done which made the net session really very interesting and exciting. Virtual match like situations were created in the net and we were asked to bowl according to the situation. It was really a learning period for me as I have to bowl to batsmen like Ben Stokes, David Miller, Rahul Tewatia….

TS: What about the innings of Tewatia ! 

Rahul: Oh! He is a very good batsman. He is capable of playing similar innings. Once we were in a dilemma whether we could win the game but Rahul single handedly did it for us. Great knock.

TS: A lot of expectations from Riyan Parag this time…..

Rahul: This is unfortunate that he would not be able to play too many big knocks in the IPL this season. I have known him for a long period. Riyan is a classy batsman and very clean hitter of the ball. He is capable of taking a team to home with his bat. Riyan was absolutely brilliant during the net session in UAE.

TS: Tell us about your future plan.

Rahul: The two and half months tour helped me to learn a lot of new things. I learnt how to bring variation in bowling and how to face top batsmen in the game. Now my first aim is to bowl well in the coming Ranji Season and help my team to do well. Dream to play for IPL and for my country. I want to fulfill those wishes as early as possible.

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