EXCLUSIVE
Follow UsSouth African pacer Anrich Nortje lavished praise on his Delhi Capitals teammate Avesh Khan predicting a bright future for the 24-year old. On Wednesday, the BCCI announced that Khan will be a part of India's bio-bubble for the T20 World Cup to assist their preparations. In an exclusive interview with Cricket.com, Nortje spoke about changes to his bowling action, his experience of playing in India and Ricky Ponting's coaching style.
"His pace and skills have been really good. He looks like a really good T20 player," Nortje said about Khan.
Khan is currently the second highest wicket-taker in IPL 2021 with 23 wickets from 15 games at an average of 18.6 and has formed a lethal bowling attack alongside Nortje and Kagiso Rabada.
"I obviously can't really comment on his his red-ball skills, but he has a good slow ball, good yorker, good bouncer and he is a nice guy on top of that. He is a bright star and there are going to be great opportunities for him going forward."
Nortje also spoke about making his Test debut against India in Pune, 2019 as he felt Indian pitches were not tough to bowl.
"It was definitely good experience playing in India. You always hear the conditions are different or tough or difficult for seamers. But when we got here we got green wickets and wasn't too difficult to bowl on," Nortje said about the match where he bowled 25 overs and finished wicketless.
The pacer hailed DC head coach Ricky Ponting's approach of keeping things simple which have helped DC reach the final last year and the play-offs this season.
"Even just sitting around and understanding how sees cricket now is really nice. He predicts what might happen and breaks it down into simple things. It gives us an idea of how better we have done or things we have to improve. Its just that we don't have to overcomplicate things"
After his debut IPL season for DC last year, Nortje returned to the side for the second leg this year and claimed 10 wickets from 8 matches at a sensational economy of 5.9.
"The conditions have been a bit different but from my side, its been how I go about things. It was nice being here (in UAE) and it's mostly about my lines and what might be different from South Africa," the 27-year old said.
Nortje admitted that he is not generating the express pace as before after making changes to his action, but is satisfied about the control he is getting with his new approach.
"It was always the other way around for me about action. It was always about running in fast and bowl as quick as possible. Sometimes you run in quick, but not always get the proper result. Right now its about my action and I might be bowling little bit slower than before. But it gives me enough time to be in a strong position when I reach the pitch," he said.
