Who is Nivethan Radhakrishnan: The Indian origin Nivethan Radhakrishnan whose family migrated to Australia from Tamil Nadu in 2013 has been named in Australia’s Under 19 2022 World Cup Squad.
Nivethan is an ambidextrous spinner, reportedly the only of his kind in the country’s junior circuit. He was offered a rookie contract by both NSW and Tasmania this season, but he decided to join the latter.
Earlier in IPL 2021, he spent some of his quality times with Ricky Ponting, Steve Smith, and several top Indian cricketers during his IPL stint with Delhi Capitals. He has been the net bowler for the Rishabh Pant-led team in the previous year’s IPL tournament.
Who is Nivethan Radhakrishnan
Right after the announcement of Australia’s Under 19 World Cup 2022 squad, the question “Who is Nivethan Radhakrishnan” starts to pop up in every cricket fan’s mind.
Among the 15 members is a 19-year-old ambidextrous spinner Nivethan Radhakrishnan, who moved from India to Australia with his family in 2013.
While speaking to ESPNcricinfo earlier this year, he revealed that it was his father Anbu Selvan, himself a former Tamil Nadu junior cricketer, who suggested him to try bowling with his left hand as well.
“Dad and I were having a little water break and I’m naturally right-handed and was just bowling my right-arm offies. “Dad just went: ‘why don’t you start bowling with the left hand?’ No one does it; we hadn’t seen anyone on TV do it when I was six in 2008.
There was no one bowling with both hands on TV or in league cricket in Chennai. No one had heard of it back then. I was like: ‘well, why not?’ There’s no fear of failure in my game. If I don’t care what people think about me and don’t care about failing, what limit is there to what I can achieve?” Radhakrishnan said.
What is Ambidextrous spin Bowling?
Ambidexterity is the ability to use both the right and left hand equally well. Only about one percent of people are naturally ambidextrous, which equates to about 70,000,000 people out of the world’s population of 7 billion.
Radhakrishnan has previously represented Australia at the U-16 level. It was Radhakrishnan’s father who encouraged him to try bowling finger spin with both hands.
However, before becoming a spinner, he used to be a fast bowler. “Before I bowled spin, I used to bowl seam in Chennai. I used to bowl both seam and spin. If I was an aspiring fast bowler of Indian origin, I probably came to the wrong country. The kids three or four years younger than me here are six feet, so I can’t really compete bowling little leg-cutters on these decks and will probably get whacked,” he said.
In 2019, Radhakrishnan made the Australia U-16 team for the Dubai tour where he finished as their leading wicket-taker in one-day matches, taking seven wickets in four games. He also scored 145 runs in four innings.
Australia’s Under-19 Men’s World Cup Squad
Harkirat Bajwa, Aidan Cahill, Cooper Connolly, Joshua Garner, Isaac Higgins, Campbell Kellaway, Corey Miller, Jack Nisbet, Nivethan Radhakrishnan, William Salzmann, Lachlan Shaw, Jackson Sinfield, Tobias Snell, Tom Whitney, Teague Wyllie.
