'He is a normal leg-spinner, but has that X-factor because of his very high arm speed with an orthodox action.'
Kolkata Knight Riders skipper Nitish Rana played down talk of Suyash Sharma being a "mystery spinner", saying the youngster is just a normal leg-break bowler with the 'X-factor'.
The little-known Delhi Under-25 spinner, who played only white ball cricket at age group level before being snapped at the IPL auction this year, formed a deadly combination with Sunil Narine and Varun Chakravarthy during KKR's comprehensive victory over Royal Challengers Bangalore in Kolkata on Thursday.
"Suyash is no mystery spinner," the KKR skipper clarified at the post-match media interaction.
"He is a normal leg-spinner, but has that X-factor because of his very high arm speed with an orthodox action; so it's very difficult pick him."
Included as 'Impact Player' in place of Venkatesh Iyer, Suyash grabbed three wickets for 30 runs as KKR’s spin trio grabbed nine wickets among them to shoot out RCB for 123 in 17.4 overs in their big chase of 205.
Playing in front of a capacity crowd of about 67,000, Suyash looked confident.
Sporting a head band to keep his flowing mane in check, Suyash has an uncanny resemblance to Indian Olympic gold medal-winning javelin thrower Neeraj Chopra. He has a quick run-up and batters looked tentative against the youngster.
"He's also very quick through the air. You will be in trouble 100 per cent if there's a little bit of doubt while batting against him. He will improve game by game," Rana said.
RCB got off to a flier before KKR's old warhorse Narine (2/16) provided the breakthrough, taking the prized-scalp of Virat Kohli before Chakravarthy (4/15) ripped through the middle order.
"I knew Suyash would do well, but I wanted to bring in Sunil in the Powerplay and then Varun and both of them gave breakthroughs. It was very important to take wickets in the middle," he said about his ploy to employ Suyash at the back-end.
"Varun’s comeback was very important for us. He didn't perform well last season, but he is bowling well this time."
Put in, KKR were tottering at 89/5 in 11.3 overs after Afghanistan ‘keeper-batter Rahmanullah Gurbaz (57) and Andre Russell (0) got out to successive deliveries.
Then KKR No 7 Shardul played a counter-attacking 68 from 29 balls to turn it around for the team.
"I was always confident of his batting ability as an impact player but his stroke-making exceeded my expectations. If your all-rounder bats in such way, and turns around the game single-handedly, what else does a captain want?"
Rinku Singh played second fiddle in the century-plus partnership with a handy cameo of 44 (33b).
Rana was seen talking to Rinku during the strategic break as he played a selfless knock and missed a half-century by four runs.
"His innings was very important. I'm pretty close to him, so I was telling him to stay till 19-20th over. I knew he can hit sixes on any ball."
On Rinku playing second fiddle on most occasions, he said: "I don't think he thinks a lot about it; what matters most for all us is to have that "W" attached to our side. Winning is most important.
"He's a bindaas (carefree) person and keeps everything simple without complicating. Our first objective is to win every match."
This was KKR's first match at home Eden Gardens in almost four years, with previous seasons hit by COVID-19.
"We waited for a long time.
