Trying to change the stigma that wicketkeepers can’t bowl: Phillips

Glenn Phillips has proved to be a handy off-spinner.
| Photo Credit: AP

He may be renowned for his stunning catches in the outfield, but Glenn Phillips has transitioned into a proper all-rounder despite rising through the ranks as a wicketkeeper-batter. The uncanny Kiwi has no qualms in admitting his transition being a mission to change the stigma towards specific skill-set on a cricket field.

“Improving my bowling has been a bigger challenge, because I had a lot of wicketkeeping bias to get over. Everybody knows I’ve always been a good fielder,” Phillips told The Hindu from Ahmedabad ahead of Gujarat Titans’ Indian Premier League campaign-opener against Punjab Kings.

“But in New Zealand, we’ve got a thing where (it’s assumed) keepers physically aren’t able to bowl. I am trying to change that stigma. It took years to be able to get the opportunity to bowl and prove that I could do it, so bowling is definitely the more challenging side of things.”

So how did Phillips manage to convert himself into a spin-bowling allrounder from being a wicketkeeper-batter?

“It was pretty simple. I hate wicketkeeping, so that is the first off. Then off-spin side of things, I have been doing for a long, long time. I have always bowled in the nets. I have loved it,” he said.

“I felt like as a wicketkeeper, I was stuck in one place and it was really boring. I didn’t enjoy it at all. But to be able to have the opportunity to bowl, that means I can be involved in both halves, and that’s what that is the most appealing part of it.”

Having plucked three sensational catches during the recent Champions Trophy, one ought to ask him if he watches any of his stunners on loop. “When they happen, I watch them on loop for a little bit because they obviously pop up all over my Instagram, but I think the catch of Marcus Stoinis on the boundary at the (2022) T20 World Cup, that’s probably the one I’ve seen the most,” he said.