The Indian Premier League (IPL), over the years, has been a platform for the players across the world to showcase their talent, especially the Indian players. The league also serves as a tournament real-time international level match vibes for players to experience pressure, expectations and teaches them to handle nerves as well. Many players, both uncapped and seasoned, also try out different changes/variations they have made to their game in the league to have an impact.

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One such change or rather a bowling variation was on the show during the Sunday (Apr 6) match between Gujarat Titans (GT) vs SunRisers Hyderabad (SRH). Titans bowler Sai Kishore, who is a left-arm orthodox spinner, bowled SRH's Heinrich Klaasen - a right hand batter. Have a look at the video below:

To explain the context, a left-arm orthodox spinner gets the ball to turn away from right handers just like Ravindra Jadeja. To move the ball into a right-hand batter like Klaasen, teams rely on right-arm off spinners, leg-spinners with googly or left-arm chinaman spinners like Kuldeep Yadav.

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Also Read: IPL 2025: GT pacer Ishant Sharma fined for Code of Conduct violation against SRH

Left-arm orthodox spinners usually rely on their pace-variation and accurate line-and-length for a wicket. Most of them do have an arm ball which comes into the right-hand batters while skidding off the surface which means it becomes a bit quick with not much turn.

What Sai Kishore did, however, was truly exceptional and extra-ordinary in cricketing context. He seems to have developed a ball which moves into the right-handers and away from left-handers with decent amount of turn.

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This variation makes Sai Kishore more than a one-dimensional spinner, in fact it makes him lethal against left-handers which is a novelty for left-arm orthodox spinners.

Who is Sai Kishore?

Sai Kishore hails from Tamil Nadu and idolises Ravi Ashwin - one of the modern greats of the game at least in Test cricket. Before earning a call in the IPL with GT in 2022, he was a net bowler with Chennai Super Kings in 2020 on the back of his performance in local TNPL tournament.

The 28-year-old six-foot three spinner has also played for India, albeit with second-string team in Asian Games in Hangzhou in 2023.

In IPL, he played five games in 2022 season and took six wickets. In the next season, he didn't play a single game and again made five appearances in 2024, picking up seven wickets.

He wasn't retained by GT in IPL mega auction ahead of 2025 season but was bought back using the Right to Match (RTM) for INR 2 crore ($233,352).