‘I knew every ball was like a free-hit, I didn’t want to get hit for sixes’: Shreyas Gopal on hat-trick against RCB – Firstcricket News, Firstpost

Shreyas Gopal recently opened up on the planning when he claimed a hat-trick in the IPL taking big wickets of Virat Kohli, AB De Villiers, and Marcus Stoinis.

It was in 2019 when the 29-year-old was playing for Rajasthan Royals. It was just the second over of the match wherein he dismissed the RCB stars on back-to-back deliveries. The hat-trick still stands to be one of the biggest highlights of his career.

Gopal, at the sidelines of the inaugural edition of Karnataka’s Maharaja T20 League, talked about his plan during that over. “I knew every ball was like a free-hit and I just didn’t want to get hit for sixes. That was my plan.”

Since it was the second over, only two fielders were placed at the boundary line with powerplay restrictions.

“I knew they had to come hard at me and I had only two fielders on the shorter side. The odds were stacked against me. But since I have played here a lot, I understood the wicket and conditions better, and realised that I had to bowl a little more overspin than pushing it through. That helped me, but on another day those deliveries could have gone out of the park against such world-class batters,” Gopal added.

Gopal has earlier featured for different teams at the Karnataka Premier League, which is now launched as the Maharaja T20 league. Gopal is expected to be one of the frontline players at the event.

He talked about how a spinner should have a big heart, bowling in T20 tournaments.

“As a spinner, the one thing I have been taught is you need to have a big heart because every batter targets spinners, and you will be targeted. Batters will look to take you on and score big against you, but you need to have a big heart and come in with more aggression after that. You also need to understand the conditions and bowl smartly to get that extra dot ball or wicket.”

He concluded, stating that bowlers should assess the conditions and the pitch ahead of the match. “Spinners are capable of taking three wickets in an over and there are more chances for wickets in death bowling, but you also can get hit a lot more. As a bowler, trying to assess conditions beforehand helps, small things like that is what will give you the edge or that magic over.”

Read all the Latest News, Trending News, Cricket News, Bollywood News, India News and Entertainment News here. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.