For Pragyan Ojha, 2015 didn’t start on a happy note. While the world rejoiced in welcoming the new year, the Indian left-arm spinner found a question mark hovering over everything he had done and achieved on the cricket field in the last decade. Ojha’s bowling action had been found to be inappropriate and he was banned from bowling.
As the world celebrated the arrival of 2015, Ojha embarked on the road to redemption. He began the work on his bowling action under the guidance of BCCI-appointed coaches and the support of his close friends. After putting in the hard yards for over a month, Ojha underwent the tests at Shri Ramachandra University, Chennai, and was cleared by the BCCI on February 5.
The timing was perfect for the left-armer. The second league phase of the 2014-15 Ranji Trophy was to start on February 6 and Ojha turned up for Hyderabad against Himachal Pradesh. He sent down 42 overs with his remodeled action and picked up four wickets.
Ojha was back. He settled into the adjustments he had made, mainly in his run-up, and his confidence was back. In a chat with BCCI.TV, the left-arm spinner spoke about the phase in which he resurrected his cricketing career and the alterations he has made in his action.
How relieved are you?
I am really glad that I could flush this whole thing out of my system and come back to bowl again. I would give the credit to the testing academy (BCCI designated) coaches, D Vasu and M Venkataramana and also to some of my childhood friends who have played Ranji Trophy with me, who were always there to help me out.
Amol Shinde, who was a spinner himself, Alfred Absolom and PS Niranjan were the guys who were always by my side during the entire phase. They are all first-class cricketers and knew exactly what I was going through. They knew how important it was for me to get out of that situation at the earliest and how delicate it could get when you’re trying to change things that you’re used to. They provided me with constant motivation and kept a close eye on my progress. They took videos of all my net sessions and ensured I was on the right track.
You bowled for the first time in this match (Hyderabad vs Himachal Pradesh) with a renewed action. Did it feel any different?
It was very different mentally. No matter how much you practice in the nets, it is totally different when you walk out to bowl in a match. I was a bit nervous when I went out there because things were not the same and everybody was looking forward to seeing me bowl and what changes I have made in my bowling. It was a different feeling and I am glad that things turned out well. I bowled 42 overs and it all worked out fine.
Did it feel like a new start to your career?
It is a second innings for me. I was out for 15-20 days and I really missed playing this season. What I am grateful for is that I could make a comeback very soon. Generally these comebacks take a lot of time but fortunately in my case there was nothing major that was wrong. There were only a few minor alterations required and with the help of the people I mentioned earlier, I could fix it in a short time.
Could you explain exactly what changes you made?
I worked with my run-up and then my follow-through. An important thing I worked on was the transfer of weight. When you’re bowling, your body weight has to transfer in a natural way. Earlier, I wasn’t able to do that properly and that led to me using the wrong muscles, which created the problem.
What was wrong with your earlier run-up and how did you remodel it?
Earlier, I had a diagonal run-up and I was going too far across. Because of that I wasn’t able to transfer my body weight the way I should have. Now I have straightened it up so that my body approaches the crease in a smooth manner and my balance remains good right until the follow-through.
Could you talk about the phase when you were working on this? How challenging was it to change something you’re so used to?
Mentally it was a big decision because I had to give up my old run-up, which I was used to right from childhood. It was possible for me to get around it because D Vasu told me, ‘In everything we are going to do and try, you have to have an open mind towards it and give it your 100 per cent’. There were a lot of things that I had to try because you never know exactly what it is that is creating this problem. I really had to be mentally open to every exercise that I was going through to get my bowling right.
Once you changed the run-up, what were the consequential challenges?
The biggest challenge was to get the ball to land in the right areas with the new run-up and extract the same amount of turn and bounce that I got with the old run-up. The most delicate thing in the whole process was accepting the changes mentally. You can push your body to do anything but if your mind doesn’t accept it, you will not be able to implement the changes. I had to inculcate these changes in my mind and talk to myself a lot. That’s where my friends came to be of great help. They would talk to me everyday and help me register these things in my subconscious mind.
Sometimes, when a bowler makes subtle changes to his action, he discovers certain new aspects of his bowling, like a new delivery or a new style. Did you come up with anything new?
Not really. For me the priority was to continue to get the same purchase off the wicket. Since the changes I made were not pertaining to my wrist position or release, it was easy for me to maintain that. I have never had too many variations anyway – I have a stock delivery and a faster one. I was solely focused on maintaining the strength and effect of these two deliveries with the new run-up in terms of turn, bounce, drift and flight. I never thought about adding a new delivery during this phase because I didn’t want to confuse myself.
Before going into the match, did you have to make a conscious effort to not go back to the old habits?
I was worried about it going into the match, I was wary that I would go back to my old run-up, but thankfully it didn’t happen. I started off with the new run-up and continued with that right through the match. I am glad that it has slowly gotten into my system and the more work I put into it, the more will it feel natural.
You’ve accomplished one goal. The next is a Test comeback?
I am confident that with these adjustments I can have the same amount of impact with the ball that I used to. I am also confident that I can succeed on any kind of wicket. I really do hope to get a chance to play for India again soon and I look forward to it.
By: BCCI
