Chennai Super Kings have a two-time World Cup winner and an England Test captain, who was bought in the most recent auction for INR 16.25 crore on the bench, because Devon Conway, who had been snapped up for only INR 1 crore in the 2022 auction, is keeping him out.
Conway had started the last season for CSK at the Wankhede Stadium because Moeen Ali was unavailable. But once the England allrounder's visa was cleared for CSK's second game, Conway was relegated to the bench. Conway then flew back home to South Africa for his wedding and marked his return to CSK's XI with three successive half-centuries. Despite that, Conway was not a certain starter for CSK in IPL 2023 because they had broken the bank to sign another England allrounder and a potential future franchise captain.
Ben Stokes had started this season as a specialist batter, as did Conway, before Stokes suffered a toe injury. By the time Stokes had completed his rehab, Conway became undroppable and Moeen's offspin became a must-have at Chepauk. One of the biggest buys of the auction would continue to warm the bench.
So, what makes Conway special? His ability to suss out conditions and master them quickly.
Before the 2021 T20 World Cup in the UAE, Conway's only experience of touring the subcontinent was a school visit to Sri Lanka way back in 2005. When CSK got him at the IPL 2022 auction for his base price, Conway had not played a single competitive game in India. Now, in his first full IPL season in 2023, Conway is currently CSK's top scorer, with 468 runs in 11 innings at an average of 52 and a strike rate of 136.84. Of those runs, 218 have come against spin, with only Shubhman Gill having scored more runs than Conway against spin. Conway has had a strike rate of 140 against spin - the best among foreign batters who have faced at least 120 balls of spin this IPL. Overall, only Sanju Samson (170.31), Suryakumar Yadav (153.33) and Yashasvi Jaiswal (141.80) are ahead of Conway on this list.
"His ability to read the conditions quicker than other batters, then come up with a plan to not only combat those conditions but more importantly score in those conditions is what that has set him apart," Glenn Pocknall, who had worked closely with Conway at Wellington Firebirds as their head coach, tells ESPNcricinfo. "Has always had the skillset [against spin] and how being able to change quicker than other players highlights how good he is at being able to read a game which for most other players takes many years of experience."
Conway has almost all the tools to dominate spinners. Firstly, he tries to pick them off the hand and plays very late like his New Zealand captain Kane Williamson. In the Test series in Pakistan, Conway and Tom Latham, another fine player of spin, were perhaps the only New Zealand batters to have figured out mystery spinner Abrar Ahmed. In the following ODI series in India, Conway challenged left-arm wristspinner Kuldeep Yadav with sweeps and reverse sweeps. The sweeps and reverse sweeps have been responsible for nearly one-fourth of his runs against spin this IPL. He also takes regular trips down the pitch to mess with the lengths - and heads - of spinners.
"I certainly did train hard on sweeping - both the [conventional] sweep and reverse. We have a very good facility in Lincoln, where we can get onto a spin machine called the Merlin," Conway told ESPNcricinfo last October. "I have spent hours on that machine, sweeping and reverse sweeping, particularly for the subcontinent. Also, working closely with Chennai [Super Kings] in the IPL, speaking to guys there who have played in the subcontinent for a number of years, just working out how they go about their sweep and reverse sweep and trying to access that game."
Conway has other options against spin, too. When they target his stumps, he often backs away and contorts his body to pump the ball over the top. That's how Conway dealt with Varun Chakravarthy and co. when CSK met Kolkata Knight Riders at Eden Gardens last month. The approach doesn't look pretty, but Conway gets the job done.
"His ability to be able to manipulate both his body and where the ball has landed to enable him to score is pretty remarkable," Pocknall says. "I'm not sure it's something he's specifically been taught or it's just his natural flair and instinct, but it's very effective."
Conway has also been open to unconventional training methods to get better against spin. Before the inaugural World Test Championship [WTC] final in 2021, Conway had sprinkled kitty litter on practice pitches to simulate the ball spitting out of the rough in his quest to handle Ravindra Jadeja and R Ashwin.
"Training on different surfaces using different constraints has helped him be in better positions more consistently to be able to play spin more effectively and more often," Pocknall says. "Outcome from this is he scores more runs from it and makes the bowler put the ball in a different area of fuller, straighter, quicker and so on. As he said on that occasion he used kitty litter, which provides variable bounce and turn. It makes you really watch the ball intently, be in a stronger position, and play the ball later."
Conway is no one-trick pony. He has had his issues against high pace and bounce in the past, but he has levelled up. He fronted up admirably to Jofra Archer, when the England fast bowler was fit and firing at Chepauk, and picked him off for three fours in six balls on a pitch that had true bounce. Conway had also countered Kagiso Rabada's hit-the-deck bustle in the powerplay last month.
Michael Hussey, CSK's batting coach, spoke glowingly of Conway more recently. "He's a beauty. He's just an absolute sponge," Hussey said at a press conference. "He's come here with a great attitude. He just wants to learn and he wants to improve. He wants to embrace everything about India, and about Chennai, about playing his best possible cricket for the team. He's just a great guy to have around. He's got a lot of motivation to yeah, just to play as well as you possibly can. He thinks about the game a lot, he loves talking about the game, but again like we've spoken about with a lot of the other guys, he just wants to keep improving, you know, all the time.
"And I think when he's playing his best cricket, he's not thinking about too much at all, he's just very clear in just playing what's in front of him, playing the ball that's coming down, adapting to the conditions, adapting to the different bowlers that are coming at him and he's been doing a fantastic job. We obviously hope it continues for the rest of the season and beyond."
CSK's fans were particularly disappointed when the franchise had let go of Faf du Plessis, who used to be a Chepauk crowd favourite back in the day, but they have now found their next Hussey in Conway. If the "Conwaaaay! Conwaaaay! Conwaaay!" chants are anything to go by, Chepauk is already warming up to him.