Teenage leg-spinner Sameer Khan bamboozled Australian all-rounder Marcus Stoinis in nets ahead of IND vs AUS 1st ODI. The 16-year-old troubled the Aussie batter with his slow left-arm orthodox deliveries.
Sameer, who is a class XI student from Kapurthala bowled to Steve Smith as well and recieved high praise from Aussie dug-out.
“Well bowled,” Stoinis acknowledged the youngster a couple of times. Appearances can be deceptive and it seemed Sameer was able to hurry Stoinis with the pace of his deliveries and keeping a flatter trajectory.
“I got Stoinis leg-before a couple of times today. The coaches didn’t ask me to bowl any specific line but I bowled what came naturally to me. Unko peeche ke paer se khelne ko thodi dikkat ho raahi thi aur tez daala aur upar dala. Thoda phaas rahe thee (Stoinis was having some difficulty when he went on the back foot. I bowled fast and pitched it up),” Sameer said after the net session.
Who is Sameer Khan?
Sameer Khan has been included in Punjab’s U-19 probables’ list. Sameer played the Punjab T20 League and got a chance in seven games, got five wickets.
“We are four brothers and a sister and my parents are completely supportive of my decision to pursue the sport”, Sameer said.
The leg spinner has been put up in a local hotel for the last two days so that he can bowl at Australian batters.
“Yesterday, I bowled for a lengthy period to Steve Smith. It was a great experience. Bahot accha laga. Unhone well bowled bhi kahaa (It felt nice bowling to the Aussies. Some of them even complimented me),” said the son of a bed-sheet seller in Kapurthala.
With no Ashton Agar in its ranks (he is on paternity leave), Australia possibly needed some quality time against finger spinners since Kuldeep Yadav will be off duty for the first two games. At the Australia nets on the day, it was more about left-arm spinners, The in order to counter the Ravindra Jadeja threat and hence four left-arm spinners were bowling in tandem alongside Josh Hazlewood, Pat Cummins and a Mitchell Starc, who looked gingerly.
Australia squad for India ODIs: Pat Cummins (c), Sean Abbott, Alex Carey (wk), Nathan Ellis, Cameron Green, Josh Hazlewood, Josh Inglis (wk), Spencer Johnson, Marnus Labuschagne, Mitchell Marsh, Glenn Maxwell, Tanveer Sangha, Matthew Short, Steven Smith, Mitchell Starc, Marcus Stoinis, David Warner and Adam Zampa.
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