IPL 2026: The unsung speed merchants - meet the throwdown specialists supporting Delhi Capitals

NEW DELHI: Before the Delhi Capitals begin their practice sessions in IPL 2026, three men are already at the stadium and quietly set up the practice nets. In their kit bags, they carry no bats, caps, gloves or pads. What they carry instead are a variety of balls and sidearm throwers with which they make the batters practice relentlessly ahead of every match day.

Aniket Berde, Darshan Singh, and Sai Pendum arm themselves with their sidearm throwers and hurl a cricket ball at velocities that would make most first-class bowlers blink.

Aniket tops out around 150 kph, while Pendum has clocked 155 kph. They can swing the new ball, reverse the old one, replicate a left-armer's angle, as well as bowl the skiddy deliveries or the toe-crushing yorker in Lasith Malinga or Matheesha Pathirana style from 18 yards.

They do it ball after ball until a batter in the middle says enough. They enter before anyone else, leave after their work is done, and spend the hours in between quietly keeping the players' world in motion. The throwdown specialist was barely a whisper in Indian cricket until Raghavendra Dvgi, widely known as Raghu, made the craft visible.

Now the Indian team's most celebrated throwdown specialist, Raghu’s sharp deliveries earned acknowledgement from every Indian batter, from Virat Kohli to Suryakumar Yadav. Apart from Raghu, Dayananda Garani and Nuwan Seneviratne have been salient fixtures in India's support set-up.

Word travels fast in Indian cricket's ecosystem – in 2013, Aniket was an assistant coach working under Pravin Amre, the former India Test batter who also served as DC's batting coach, when he first encountered the possibilities of being a throwdown specialist. A cricketer from Kalyan, Aniket took to coaching early, and the scale of what he saw Raghu doing altered the course of his career.

"I was with Ajinkya sir in a practice session, when I saw Raghu give him throwdowns. After that, I asked him how he did it. He told me that you can do it like this or that. In 2013, there was no trend of throwing with a sidearm. Since 2015/16, the trend has increased. I started learning it and then slowly, I started throwing with a sidearm," recalls Aniket in an exclusive conversation with IANS.

Within years, Aniket, who previously bowled to the likes of Shreyas Iyer and Robin Uthappa, had not only mastered the sidearm with his right hand, but drawn on his background as an ambidextrous cricketer: bowling and batting right-arm while throwing with his left.

After three years with Dubai Capitals in the ILT20, he is now proficient in sending throwdowns with both hands for DC in the IPL, an ability that, in the hyper-specialised ecosystem of T20 franchise cricket, is a genuinely valuable asset.

"Because I used to throw balls with my left hand, it was also strong. Gradually, I started throwing with my left hand. As I practiced, I was able to send down balls with my left hand. Initially, I used to throw along the line and length. Now, I am able to throw in a normal way," he said.

Having someone like Darshan, the senior-most throwdown specialist in DC, has made for a huge learning experience for Aniket. "Darshan bhai is like a senior to me, as he has been in DC for 7-8 years. We try to learn as much as we can from him. The camaraderie is good. Darshan bowls to the main batters in the centre, while me and Sai handle the nets besides him."

Darshan's journey to being a throwdown specialist began after injury cut short his playing life. He grew up in Ramban district in Jammu and Kashmir, nursing ambitions of playing for India. He played age-group cricket for the state as a pacer until a stress fracture in 2014 took a year or two out of his playing life. The door on playing was effectively closed, but Darshan found another one opening.

In 2013, watching a throwdown specialist at work during a Ranji Trophy practice session, something clicked. His first significant break came when he delivered throwdowns to then-India opener and current head coach Gautam Gambhir at the Roshanara Club in New Delhi in 2016.

He spent four years with DDCA, had a two-year stint with the J&K team, and in 2018 earned his place in the IPL with DC - a relationship that has endured ever since, including stints with the Dubai Capitals in the ILT20. What strikes Darshan, even now, is how intimate the craft really is.

Throwdowns are not generic batting practice - they are bespoke simulations, tailored to each batter's position in the order and the specific problems they are solving. "Nissanka and Rahul are openers. So they have a different way of preparation - they would prefer facing good length balls, a little bit of swing with the new ball.