He was India’s star in their 2012 Under-19 World Cup final victory and has been emerging stronger by the day, coming through the ranks. These are the exciting and priceless times for 20-year-old Punjab pacer, Sandeep Sharma.

Sandeep’s stock has gone several notches higher in the last two IPL matches he has played, for Kings XI Punjab. With figures of 4-0-21-3 and 3-1-15-3 respectively, he has won successive Man of the Match awards in KXIP’s wins.

After their five-wicket win over RCB, Sandeep opened his heart out to iplt20.com. He spoke about his bowling strength to left-handers, being mentored by the likes of Mitchell Johnson and L Balaji, and beamed with gratitude as he described his idol, Virender Sehwag, as “an amazing person”.

Here are excerpts from Sandeep’s exclusive interview:

After the way you have performed, especially in the last two matches, who says T20 is a batsman’s game?

I have been getting the new ball and I am swinging the ball well. The one thing that all my coaches have told me is that it’s okay if you don’t have too much pace. If you can swing the ball, it will create problems for the best batsmen in the world. That’s what I have kept in mind so far and have concentrated on my swing.

Your stock ball, the one that shapes away from the left-hander, was very useful today. It got you the wickets of Gayle and Parthiv.

Yes, it did. I knew RCB have a lot of lefties and so during the practice yesterday, I concentrated solely on getting my stock ball right. The left-handers often have a problem with the away-going deliveries and it was my plan to bowl maximum balls to the left-handers. I am glad I executed it well today.

Are you someone who believes in the importance of having a perfect stock ball and not look to do too many experiments?

Mentally, till now I have been focused on working on my swing. Now, I have started to also work on variations like yorkers, slower ones, slow bouncers, etc. which are needed if you’re bowling in the death overs and when the ball has stopped swinging. I have improved a lot since the last year when it comes to bowling with the old ball.

Mitchell Johnson told me he is trying to be as good a mentor to you as he can. How do you find his inputs?

Johnson and I are completely different type of bowlers, so there isn’t much I can take from him technically. But what I have been leaning immensely from him is how to prepare yourself for the match in your practice sessions, how to conduct yourself confidently on the field and how to plan your moves based on the batsmen and situation. For instance, in our last match (against KKR), I was bowling my last over and was hit for boundaries off the first two balls. Mitchell came to me and said that the bowling plan and the field that I was using was for a top-order batsman and it will not work against the tailenders. He asked me to bowl straight length balls from over the wicket instead of using variations and trying to create angles. He knew that the lower-order batsmen will find it tough to hit the simple balls and that will get me their wickets. He was right.

How are you using L Balaji’s experience as an Indian bowler to improve?

Bala paaji has been really helpful when it comes to preparing me for situations where I might get hit for runs and will have to maintain my cool.
This is his seventh IPL and he has faced a lot of difficult situations while bowling. Talking to him about it will keep me better mentally and physically equipped to face such situations when they arrive.

Who from RCB is more difficult to bowl to for you – Gayle, Virat, AB or Yuvraj – and why?

Virat with the new ball and de Villiers with the old. Virat has a very good technique to play the new ball and batting one-down for India, he has the experience of handling some of the best new-ball bowlers in the world. de Villiers, on the other hand, is a master at plundering runs in the death overs with the old ball. He is very unpredictable and you can never tell where he is going to hit you next.

How has it been with Virender Sehwag? Has he been giving you advice from the batsman’s perspective?

Viru pa is an amazing person! In the nets, we inform the batsman of our hypothetical field and bowl to them. Sometimes, when I don’t bowl to my field or do something wrong and Viru pa happens to see it, he stops his own batting and comes to talk to me. He tells me exactly where I went wrong and goes out of his way to help me become a better cricketer. He is really a gem of a person. I am so lucky to be playing in Kings XI Punjab this year with Viru pa in my team. He has been my favourite batsman since I was a kid and now I get to play alongside him and learn from him.