'I want to contribute in all three departments' - Shadab Khan opens up after his memorable LPL debut as bowler

National, July 16, 2024: Lanka Premier League (LPL) player and Pakistan leg-spin all-rounder Shadab Khan is having a memorable debut in LPL Season 5 with Colombo Strikers. In his very first game, he snared a hat-trick against Kandy Falcons and has since gone on to take 16 wickets, the most by any bowler so far in this LPL season.

As the LPL caravan moved from Dambulla to Colombo, his team’s home base, Shadab picked up his third four-wicket haul of the tournament, against Jaffna Kings at the R Premadasa Stadium on Sunday. It has been a remarkable turnaround for Shadab by his own admission; having not taken a single wicket for Pakistan for a while, he has been enjoying the conditions in Sri Lanka, particularly at his team’s home ground Colombo.

“I was struggling for three months. I hadn’t taken a wicket in the last seven international games. I came here, started bowling, and am now always taking wickets. That is the beauty of cricket. You have to enjoy these types of scenarios as well… sometimes you perform, sometimes you don’t. But the process that you follow has to be consistent,” Shadab said after taking 4/10 from his four overs against Jaffna Kings.

Talking about his first outing this season in Colombo, Shadab said that the pitch was helpful for spinners, but added that a T20 bowler needs to have variations to be successful across conditions. 

“The pitch was helping us as it was a bit slow and gripping a bit… But T20 cricket is very hard nowadays as 200 is easily chaseable. As a spinner, you have to have your variations, because on flat tracks, if you don’t have variations, you can go for runs. But if you have variation, you can take wickets as well as contain runs. So that is very important, and also important that you land it in a good area,” Shadab said.

Shadab who has already spread an undefeatable spinning web also wants to contribute as an allrounder across all departments of the game for his franchise Colombo Strikers. 

“I am performing for my team and that is a good sign. I am the main bowler and if I am taking wickets, that is a positive sign for me and my team. I want to contribute in all three phases. So far I am contributing in two as a bowler and fielder. Hopefully, I can contribute with the bat too,” Shadab concluded.