Irfan Pathan backs Andrew Tye to achieve a lot of success for Kings XI Punjab

Irfan Pathan reckons Andrew Tye is an extremely clever and skilful bowler in the shortest format of the game and he is someone who can really excel and provide great returns to the Kings XI Punjab in the upcoming 11th edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL) which is going to start on the 7th of April.

Pathan, who himself has played for various IPL teams in the past, was one of the experts on Star Sports show Gameplan where they were analysing the Kings XI squad and when he was asked to name the dark horse of the Punjab squad, he didn’t have to think much before he came up with the name of Tye.

The Australian has recently put on some fantastic performances for Australia in white ball cricket and has almost established himself in the Kangaroo squad in both 20-overs and 50-overs cricket. And not only in international cricket, Tye’s numbers in the most recent Big Bash League (BBL) as well as in IPL 10 were extraordinary.

The knuckleball

His biggest strength is his knuckleball which comes out much slower than the normal deliveries, but when he disguises it, there is not too much of a difference in his bowling action which makes it extremely difficult for the batsman to read it off his hands and he ends up outfoxing the batsman.

There are a few bowlers around the world who know how to bowl the knuckleballs and have got fair bit of control over it including the Indian fast bowler Bhuvneshwar Kumar, but Tye is an absolute master of this trade.

Dark horse

And the beauty of it all is that majority of his balls are knuckleballs. He bowls so much of it that more than a variation, it has almost become his stock ball, but the batsmen are still not able to pick it properly which speaks volumes of his skill. In Pathan’s opinion, it’s very much possible that at the conclusion of IPL 11, Tye might be at the top of the pile in the list of the leading bowlers of Kings XI Punjab.

“According to me, the dark horse (for Kings XI Punjab) and I rate him really high is Australian fast bowler Andre Tye. He has a lot of variation. Till this date, not many has been able to understand his knuckleball. And in a same over, he has three or four different kinds of deliveries, and this can give a lot of trouble to the opponent team. I think by the time the season ends, he might become the no. 1 bowler for Kings XI Punjab.” the former KXIP player stated.

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