Hunain Shah takes yorkers beyond death overs

Hunain Shah has a thing for yorkers, and from what he says, it is intentional. With 14 wickets in eight games, he is currently the PSL’s fifth-highest wicket-taker, despite playing fewer games than anyone in the top 10. 

Turning around Hyderabad’s campaign

Before he was bought by Hyderabad Kingsmen this season, Hunain had spent two years with Islamabad United, playing eleven games. Even then, he said, his most lethal weapon was using yorkers, especially when a batter least expected it.

Speaking to ESPNcricinfo in an interview, the middle brother of Naseem Shah and Ubaid Shah said he had been actively working on his yorker execution months prior to the PSL.

“Actually, if you look at 2024, I think I may have bowled more yorkers that year than any other bowler,” Hunain said. “Particularly against Kieron Pollard and Karachi Kings, and against their power hitters. When I bowled against them, I may have bowled 14-15 yorkers in the same spell.”

“Everyone knows, even in domestic cricket, that I bowl yorkers well. But I worked even harder at [yorkers] in the time I had [before the tournament], because I'm coming back from injury. I practiced a lot of target bowling. You could say I spent a whole week just bowling yorkers, so that I made sure I could nail them when the team needed them.

Sometimes the execution doesn't go the way you wanted, because in T20 cricket, there can be a lot of pressure, and sometimes the body doesn't respond to it perfectly. But most of the time, when you're prepared well, you're able to execute.”

Not just a death bowling weapon

For Hunain, yorkers aren’t a death bowling-only speciality. He has one in store whenever a batter is least expecting it. But for all his infatuation with yorkers, Hunain doesn’t let that override the team plans. In his recent games, he got more batters out off short balls and bouncers than yorkers, and as explained by him, he worked with what the pitch was offering.

“In T20s, you try them more at the death. But you'll have seen that whenever I feel the batter isn't expecting one, I will attempt one. It's not as if I've kept them saved for the last two overs,”

“Whenever I feel the batter isn't ready for it, you can bluff the batter and send a yorker in. In the previous two or three matches, you'll see I didn't bowl too many yorkers, because I was getting help from the pitch and the length ball was also a useful option, even at the death. I could have bowled yorkers then, too, but the team plan matters more, and we go according to the team plan and what the captain demands. So I try to execute according to that.”

 

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