Now, what if the same bowler is also a stylish left-handed opening batter?

Meet Nivethan Radhakrishnan, a 19-year-old of Indian origin picked in Australia’s squad for the 2022 U-19 World Cup in the West Indies from January 14 to February 5. Radhakrishnan, who moved from Chennai to Sydney with his parents and elder brother in 2013, is one of just a handful of ambidextrous spinners in the professional game.

The U-19 World Cup will be Radhakrishnan's biggest chance yet to be under the spotlight given the eyeballs the tournament garners, but the youngster isn’t overawed. He has been excelling for Tasmania’s second XI—he moved from New South Wales in June—and feels he is making a strong case for Sheffield Shield (Australia's premier first-class competition) selection in the near future.

The other Indian origin player in the squad is off-spinner Harkirat Singh Bajwa, 17, whose family migrated from Mohali to Melbourne in 2012 when he was seven.

"I wouldn’t say I was anticipating the call, neither would I say I was really excited. But I would definitely say I deserve this opportunity because I have been performing consistently at the senior level. So the U-19 level should be well within my grasp and I should be able to help the Aussie U-19 team do well,” says Radhakrishnan from Sydney.

The most eye-catching facet of his game, of course, is his ambidexterity. A natural right-hander, the idea to also give bowling left-arm a go came from his father Anbu Selvan—a former Tamil Nadu junior cricketer—when Radhakrishnan was learning the ropes.

“I was about 5 or 6 and it was a casual day at the nets. My dad just thought randomly, “Why don’t you try bowling with your left hand?” This was in 2008. Back then, there was nobody doing it anywhere in domestic or international cricket. I didn’t have anyone to lean on. I just decided to work with my dad. It was always a challenge merging both and ensuring that one didn’t affect the other negatively or didn’t affect my body negatively,” recalls Radhakrishnan.

His father chimes in, “I just had a thought that he could try bowling with his left hand too. What is impossible for others is possible for him. I consider him to be a prodigy.”

Radhakrishnan can’t remember when exactly he took a liking to the game, for the earliest memories of his childhood in Chennai are associated with having a bat and ball around.

“Since I was born, the only thing I have done is play cricket. I have played U-10 matches in Chennai with the red ball when I was four-and-a-half or five years old. I am just 19 but I have played red-ball cricket for almost 15 years now. In some ways, I am a veteran. I know my skills well enough,” says Radhakrishnan.

The unmistakable confidence seems to be an inherent trait. It has held him in good stead amid the differing opinions his switch bowling has drawn.

“Though I am a natural right-hander, I can’t tell my right apart from my left when it comes to bowling. In every age group I have played, I have always bowled with both arms, with equal success. Through the years, I have trained extremely hard and ensured that both are equally up to the mark. Doing something unorthodox like this, it is obviously going to garner plenty of negative opinions. So, I have always had to make sure my left-arm bowling is as good as the right-arm.”

The ability to bowl with either hand apart, choosing when to use which requires careful consideration too. For Radhakrishnan, three factors are primarily at play: the conditions, the batters up against him and the game situation.

“As an ambidextrous bowler, it is not about just opting to bowl with the right- or left-arm because you feel like it. Bowling in games over time, I have spent hours and hours understanding what it means do that. The tactics behind it, when to bowl what, who to bowl what to… Every bowler has a plan before running in.

“A right-arm fast bowler for instance takes into account multiple factors before delivering a ball. I just have twice the amount of knowledge that I need to process before delivering the ball because I have two different skills that I can use for one ball. I just need to make sure I choose the right option depending on the situation,” says Radhakrishnan, who was a net bowler for Delhi Capitals during the first leg of IPL 2021.

Among the rare breed of ambidextrous bowlers, the most prominent is Sri Lanka’s Kamindu Mendis, who has played four ODIs and five T20Is. Vidarbha’s Akshay Karnewar is the other.

“If somebody is interested and is willing to put in the amount of time I have, there is no reason why it can’t be a regular thing in five or ten years. Hopefully I can have success. The examples are rising. The amount of hard work I had to put in was with nobody to look up to,” he says.

What is even more remarkable is that Radhakrishnan has been able to hone the skill of bowling with both arms despite being an opening batter as well. He enjoys works on both aspects of his game and wants to be considered a genuine all-rounder. In this, he takes inspiration from his idol, Sir Gary Sobers.

For a millennial kid to even be aware of Sobers is impressive.

Radhakrishnan says: “As long as I can remember, I haven’t liked watching cricket. I like playing cricket. But I would always go to YouTube and watch videos of cricket from the 1960s, 70s and 80s. From a young age, the one cricketer I was enamoured with was Sobers. He is hands down the greatest cricketer of all time. He could arguably be considered the greatest sportsperson of all time purely because how good he was in each of his different skills. If ambidexterity was a concept existing back then, I am sure he could have done it. That is why I have always liked him. He has been my only idol. I like other cricketers but when I sit down and ask myself whether anyone else is better than he was, the answer is a resounding no.”

Anbu Selvan has arranged for his son to meet the great man in the Caribbean next month. That would cap off what Radhakrishnan is hoping will be a special U-19 World Cup as the Aussies bid to regain the title they last won in 2010.