Michael Hussey has recalled an instance from IPL 2018, when CSK captain MS Dhoni tried to read Rashid Khan‘s variations based on the team analyst’s advice and batting coach Hussey’s suggestion, but ended up losing his wicket to the Afghanistan spinner.
“The night before the qualifying final against Sunrisers Hyderabad, he [the analyst] sent me this split-screen of Rashid Khan,” Hussey said, speaking on the Lessons Learnt with the Greats podcast. “When he [Rashid] runs in to bowl, when he bowls his leg-spinner, he holds his finger wide as he’s running in, and when he bowls a wrong ‘un, [he bowls] with his fingers like this (gestures).
“And I thought – ‘Woah, this is good, but I am not sure if I should be throwing this out to the batsmen the night before this massive qualifying final’. So, I am sitting on this information, and I am going back and forth – ‘Should I, should I not, would I want it’.
“What he did in the game was, he thought he saw it was going to be a leg-spinner, played a shot, didn’t bother watching the bowl, and obviously he was done through the gate with the wrong ‘un.
“He said ‘If I had got time in the nets, have a look at the hand as he was running in to bowl, then still watch the ball then I would have time to build it into the routine. And it would have been very beneficial.'”