Team India’s bowling coach Bharat Arun is in search of a decent left-armer who will be a complete package and could be able to bowl all kinds of variations to complete the bowling unit. Zaheer Khan still remains the best left-arm seamer till date while Ashish Nehra and Irfan Pathan were also an integral part of the team in both Test and ODI cricket. RP Singh also created a sensational but faded away into oblivion rather soon.
Ever since Zaheer’s retirement India hasn’t found an able replacement in ODI and Test cricket. They tried out Barinder Sran for a brief period but he failed to impress and the focus then shifted to the tall and talented pacer Aniket Chaudhary who was part of the Royal Challengers Bangalore squad in the previous IPL. He is currently been monitored by Rahul Dravid who is the India A coach.
“We have wrist spinners like Kuldeep Yadav and Yuzvendra Chahal. So, if we can get even one good left-arm fast bowler it will go well for the side.”
“I have just come into this role so definitely we will be speaking to the coaches of the ‘A’ team and I guess there needs to be information that needs to be shared for us to make best use of bowlers coming in,” Arun said.
Arun also put an end to the controversy surrounding Ashwin’s participation in the limited overs side as the team tries to build a reliable unit for the 2019 World Cup.
“This question should be asked to the selectors but as bowling coach, I think he is an extremely talented bowler. Even if you look at his last ODI which he played in West Indies, he has got 3 for 28.”
“He (Ashwin) is very skilful. I don’t want to look at what has happened so far but he is definitely part of the ODI team. We would also like to give a lot of opportunities to other bowlers as well (hence the rotation), then we can have a long-term plan in place and then we will take a call accordingly”, Arun said.
Arun also stated the fact that India will be looking to have all their premier bowlers for the 2019 World Cup but will try and have able replacements for each of the bowlers. “If you look at the bowling unit as a whole there has been tremendous improvement since the last couple of years. But looking ahead to the 2019 World Cup, we will need to have backup options for every bowler that we have. There are enough bowlers in our country to provide that bench strength,” said Arun.
Arun also praised Hardik Pandya for his willingness to improve all the time and become a premier all-rounder in the international circuit. He also added that as a bowler he has the ability to give his captain the quota of 10 overs on a consistent basis.
“If you look at Hardik, he works up very good speeds and bowls 135-plus consistently. He wants to bowl those full 10 overs. And he does understand that to bowl those 10 overs he needs to work harder and become more skilful. He is not afraid of trying different things. So my job is a lot easier to be working with somebody like Hardik who wants to upgrade on his skill.”
Adding on the importance of improving for all the bowlers in the team, Arun said:
“It depends on what the bowler is capable of doing. Not only their actions but also what is easier for them to do. So it is my job to understand that and give them the right feedback.
“Each bowler takes a little while to be able to do that in a match, you need to put in some hours of practice and you need to perfect that in practice before you are able to put that skill in the match.”
Arun also explained that to bowl fast for a consistent period the individual has to remain at the top of his fitness level.
“Fast bowling is about 50 percent fitness and 50 percent on your skill. So to remain fit, to bowl fast over a period of time, you have to be extremely fit and that’s one thing that we are emphasizing on”, he said.
“It is important that we monitor the workload of the bowlers. You take into account not only what they do in practice but also what they do in the matches and you keep their workloads pretty ideal. That’s the key to workload management,” Arun concluded.