Don't judge a book by its cover: Sikandar Raza
The learnings to take from Sikandar's performances the last 12 months and what role he should serve in the Punjab Kings setup
Since 2022, Sikandar Raza has become a fan favorite of many with the golden form he had going, creating a cult following of sorts that’s akin to the Joe Denly fan club you may come across on Twitter every now and then.
Or more so, the cult following Sikandar has cultivated is more aptly compared to that of Yuvraj Singh, as in April 2021, he was out of all forms of cricket for an indefinite period after a cancer scare in the form of an infected bone marrow that was suspected to be cancerous.
He went under the knife immediately after returning home to Zimbabwe following the conclusion of a Test series with Afghanistan in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
"I had pain in my right arm during the Abu Dhabi Tests," Sikandar told ESPNcricinfo. "We treated [it] like it was muscular pain initially but the pain kept getting worse. I remember staying up all night, unable to sleep despite having sleeping pills. That's how I played the Test matches.
"After coming home, the ultrasound showed that the muscles are all fine. The MRI showed that I had a foreign or alien substance on my bone marrow. Seeing this the surgeon told me that this substance could make my shoulder bone so weak that I could fracture it by just throwing a ball. He suggested that I do a biopsy right away. I wanted to wait till the Pakistan series but he insisted otherwise. He said that due to the deformity seen in my bicep bone, they were suspecting cancer."
"I went under the knife within the next 48 hours. They opened up my bicep by drilling the bone. They created a hole to take out some puss and red substance.
"All of this was sent it for a biopsy, and it came back as negative. There was a type of infection but only last night the bone biopsy report ruled out the cancer," he said.
So taking into account Sikandar thankfully survived a cancer scare and the fact he plays his international cricket for a quite underappreciated Full Member nation, it makes all the more reason to put your support behind his back with his golden form.
CricViz numbers further amplified how impactful he had been in T20Is leading into the 2022 T20 World Cup in Australia, and while I am a huge proponent of data-driven cricket, I wasn’t entirely convinced by these numbers in the context of the T20 World Cup and most T20 leagues.
Sikandar’s golden form in T20Is began immediately after his comeback at home, with Zimbabwe hosting the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup Global Qualifier B, where the finalists would qualify for the first round of the T20 World Cup.
Zimbabwe were one of the finalists, and Sikandar’s onset of his golden form played a significant role in making it possible.
With the bat, he was the second-highest run-scorer to USA’s Steven Taylor, scoring 228 runs across 5 matches averaging 57 striking at 176.74 with 2 fifties and a top score of 87*, while with the ball he wasn’t as prolific for the vast majority of the tournament until the final.
After winning the toss and electing to bat first, Zimbabwe could only muster 132 before being bowled out with 3 balls remaining against Netherlands, and though qualification was already sealed, Sikandar thought otherwise.
He bowled his heart out and took figures of 4-8 in 4 overs, one of the most economical 4-over spells in T20I cricket that helped bundle the Dutch out for just 95, winning by 37 runs, and Sikandar also ended up becoming the Player of the Tournament.
This was followed with 127 runs across 3 matches averaging 63.50 striking at 158.75 with a top score of 65* in a home series against Bangladesh that followed immediately after the Qualifiers, for which he was the series top scorer and also the Player of the Series.
However, it personally felt as though fans were overhyping performances that primarily came against weaker nations, particularly in the Qualifiers, and Bangladesh isn’t exactly known to be one of the top dogs of T20I cricket either, far from it really.
And at that time, it felt as if it turned out to be true, as in the T20 World Cup, he largely performed against the weaker teams of the tournament, that too in the first round.
Even though ESPNCricinfo rated him the Most Valuable Player (MVP) of the tournament, once again looking at it from the Full Member lens, it still did feel as if it was misleading after diving into the context of his performances by the opposition.
He was Zimbabwe’s leading run scorer and overall the sixth highest scoring 219 runs across 8 matches averaging 27.37 striking at 147.97 with a fifty and a top score of 82, but it personally still wasn’t convincing to me that he had the ability to consistently do this against higher quality T20 bowling attacks.
However, the numbers did seem more convincing with the ball from the Full Member lens, finishing as Zimbabwe’s second highest wicket-taker to Blessing Muzarabani, taking 10 wickets averaging 15.60 with an economy rate of 6.50.
Six of those wickets came against the West Indies and Pakistan respectively (3 apiece), with Sikandar taking figures of 3-25 in his 4 overs in their famous victory against Pakistan at Perth, scalping Shan Masood, Shadab Khan, and Haider Ali respectively.
Following the T20 World Cup, it genuinely felt as if Sikandar’s gig was up as if a magician had just been exposed for being a one-trick pony, with well below-par performances in the Lanka Premier League (LPL) and the International League T20).
With the bat in LPL, he scored just 76 runs across 7 matches averaging just 10.85 and with a paltry strike rate of 110.14 while with the ball, he took only 5 wickets averaging 34.40 with an economy rate of 8.19
The latter numbers were genuinely appalling to me, considering in the previous season of the LPL, Samit Patel and Maheesh Theekshana were joint highest wicket-takers, and Sri Lankan pitches are known to be extremely slow and very conducive to the spinners, further giving me evidence that Sikandar’s golden form isn’t all it is made to be.
As for the ILT20, most people are likely familiar that I had made preview packs for the league, and for Sikandar Raza, I wrote along the lines of expecting him to do pretty poorly, and for the most part, it turned out to be correct.
His numbers with the bat did improve, but those were helped with 4 not outs in the 8 matches he played, scoring 209 runs averaging 52.25 striking at 133.12 with a fifty and a top score of 56*, but the numbers with the ball were similar to what was seen in the ILT20, taking just 3 wickets averaging 63.33 with an economy rate of 7.60
Really, it began to seem as though all the rage of his golden form was applicable to only ODIs, which began during that home series against Bangladesh, a format in which Bangladesh is highly underrated.
With the bat, he scored 252 runs across the 3-match series averaging 252 striking at 106.32, with 2 centuries and a top score of 135* and was also just as threatening with the ball, taking 5 wickets averaging 29.20 at an economy rate of just 5.03.
This was followed by that famous century against India at home in Harare that nearly singlehandedly take Zimbabwe over the line in the final match of the series, with India sending over a squad composed of players from their deep talent reserves after resting most of the first choice players, with the former well capable of competing against most Full Member teams as well.
A dip in his ODI form did follow in the home series against Ireland and especially in their tour of Australia, in which he struggled to adapt to the conditions at all, scoring just 30 runs across the 3 matches averaging 10 with a horrendous strike rate of 37.50.
Prior to his stint with the Dubai Capitals in the ILT20, both the Pakistan Super League (PSL) draft and the Indian Premier League (IPL) auction happened, especially given how he more than failed to capitalize on the spin-friendly surfaces in the LPL, I did not expect him to get signed in either of the leagues, let alone in both of them.
But the latter happened.
In the PSL, the eventual title-defenders Lahore Qalandars used one of their Gold picks on Sikandar, while in the auction, the Punjab Kings bought him for his base price of 50 lakh INR (approx. $63K USD)
I was very surprised at not only the fact an IPL franchise was willing to take a punt on him in spite of his poor performances in a league whose quality is well below the IPL’s, and the fact that a PSL team whose home venue (the Gaddafi Stadium) is slow and traditionally very spinner friendly and sees most teams employing the second spinner in their playing XI still saw value in him considering his LPL performances.
And it would be in the PSL8 that I would begin to be proved horribly wrong, realizing that judged the book by its cover.
Specifically, in the Qalandars’ second encounter against the Quetta Gladiators.
After being put into bat first, the Qalandars found themselves stunned in the first half of their batting innings, reeling at 50/7 with 3 balls remaining to the halfway stage.
But Sikandar played a 34-ball 71 blinder at a strike rate of 208.82 with 8 fours and 3 sixes, against a bowling attack spearheaded by Naseem Shah and also had Mohammad Nawaz in their ranks and propelled the Qalandars to a much respectable total of 148 all out with 4 balls remaining after it looked as though the Qalandars may end up breaking the record held by them of the lowest score in the history of the league.
The Qalandars would end up winning owing to his antics and would be adjudged the Man of the Match as well.
And even though he didn’t get many opportunities to bowl throughout the season, he still regularly kept it very tight whenever he got to roll his arm over, especially at Gaddafi, where he took 3 wickets averaging just 15.3 at an economy rate of 7.89.
So what is the recipe for Sikandar’s golden form since 2022 exactly?
In a post-match analysis segment after a home match against Islamabad United against whom he took figures of 2/6, Sikandar was invited as a guest and revealed that he asked his fellow teammate Rashid Khan for tips on how to get his googly to turn more.
“Before the game, Rashid and I were working on little grips, and I said to Rashid there’s something about the googly that’s coming out of my hand very okay but it’s not turning as much as I want and just get it to bounce, and Rashid just tweaked it a little bit,” he said.
He also revealed that because he has had multiple surgeries (including the one for the infectious bone marrow), he chose to adopt the no-gather action that’s very much a doppelganger of Sunil Narine’s.
“For me, because I had multiple surgeries on my shoulders, I lost a lot of strength in my arm and I didn’t think I was gonna be successful in international cricket as a batter only and for me to take Zimbabwe cricket forward I thought taking Zimbabwe cricket forward as a batter would’ve been a very difficult ask so I wanted to continue as an allrounder,” said Raza.
“And I was a part of CPL so all these ideas came from Sunny bhai [Narine] for sure, but the main reason is because I lost a lot of strength in my arm I couldn’t get my hand higher so I started bowling like that to have a little bit more pace behind the ball.” he continued.
In the PSL, he generally operated in the 90+ range, often exceeding 100+ even, proving the ideas talked about with Narine to be a massive success in regards to his speeds.
And in another interview with ESPNCricinfo during the T20 World Cup last year, he also revealed that he was working on variations with Narine.
“Just being an offspinner without any variation is quite hard to survive white-ball cricket. That thought led to the variations and again Sunil has played a huge role as well," he said. "I met him at BPL [Bangladesh Premier League] and had a very good chat with him. And now to see some of the variations coming out of the hand really nicely is quite pleasing."
And he has four of them, as seen below.
With the bat, I didn’t see any significant change in his neutral positions and trigger movements against both pace and spin that enabled him to find success in the PSL.
Sikandar more or less has the same neutral position and trigger movement as well, with the neutral position being just barely side-on to his leg stump and keeping his feet very close in his “box” with little space between them.
However, against spin, his backlift will often be lower than against pace, likely to adapt to slower conditions like at Gaddafi where the ball typically doesn’t come to the bat as quickly.
As a result, his improved form against higher-quality bowling attacks can be attributed to an external factor, such as engaging in range-hitting practice more frequently during his net sessions and looking to bat with a more positive mindset (specifically with greater intent).
But how does Sikandar fit into the Punjab Kings jigsaw puzzle exactly?
Simple: as a backup for Liam Livingstone, but primarily coming in at #5 rather than at #4 like Livingstone will continue doing.
Just like Livingstone, by role, Sikandar is a pace hitter. However, Livingstone also has fairly strong gears against most types of spin (barring SLA), whereas Sikandar’s aren’t as strong against all spin types, so in order to best maximize Sikandar’s output, it will be best to send him at #5, with an ideal entry point being a few overs before the death to allow him to settle before looking to begin his onslaught.
#5 has also been the position where Sikandar has found most of his success in his golden form, meaning should he play, the top 7 should likely look something like this:
Shikhar Dhawan (C)
Prabhsimran Singh (WK)
Bhanuka Rajapaksa
Jitesh Sharma
Sikandar Raza
Shahrukh Khan
Sam Curran
*this assumes the news of Jonny Bairstow not obtaining a NOC to play is true
And just like Livingstone, he should only be the sixth bowling option when needed just like for the Qalandars, primarily looking to bowl him against LHB heavy lineups, a batsman on strike who is particularly weak against offspin and on surfaces such as Chepauk, where Punjab should especially bowl him if he plays, as Chepauk is a venue where he’s most likely to find great success just like he did at Gaddafi.
Even though it is very likely that Sikandar will warm the bench the entire season like Benny Howell unfortunately did, it is needless to say that after his PSL performances, he serves as a very valuable backup option for the Punjab Kings, and after all, he wasn’t just a mere “Associate and weak team bully” these last 12 months, and very much has the potential to find some level of success in the upcoming IPL season.
Given the country he plays his international cricket for, his performances personify the saying to never judge a book by its cover, and this article is my infamous apology form for doing so.