When Anil Kumble took charge as Indian team’s new supremo, he was happy to acknowledge the influence that his predecessors, particularly John Wright and assured he wouldn’t mind picking his brain. It’s his first week in the job and Kumble has successfully re-introduced one of John Wright’s key concepts: a buddy system.
It was the 2001 series against Australia, Wright decided to assign a partner to each and every member of the squad, pairing a batsman with a bowler. One such unique relationship was VVS Laxman becoming Zaheer Khan’s unofficial batting coach. The system even carried on well beyond Wright’s departure. It now looks Kumble has incorporated something similar, usually pairing a batsman with a bowler or an all-rounder: like Shikhar Dhawan with Mohammed Shami, or Virat Kohli with Bhuvneshwar Kumar.
“It’s about the senior guys communicating with the junior guys,” Stuart Binny revealed. “Today we’ve paired up – each guy’s paired with another guy; it’s called a ‘buddy programme’. So it’s me and Rohit [Sharma] paired up together. Ro has played a lot of one-day cricket and Test cricket, and for me to share thoughts with him, that’s the way forward, I think. If I can help Rohit by 2%, then maybe he can help me with 30% – that’s what we’re looking to do today. It’s about helping each other through situations.”
The primary object for this buddy system is to help the players communicate better with teammates, and share their thoughts without any hesitation.
“It’s about me and Rohit communicating about our net sessions, about areas that I bowl [for example]. In the past, many guys held back because you didn’t want to say something to upset another guy, but we’ve been pushed in a direction to communicate what we want, especially with our games. There’s a lot you can learn from someone else, even by telling him that, I think this is the way forward. Communication is the key, I think. That’s what we’re trying to breed.”
Over the course of their Test careers so far, Binny and Rohit have often enjoyed a healthy competition for the same spot in the team. The scenario most of the times depended on whether conditions have required an extra batsman or an allrounder.
There was an interesting aspect of India’s net session on Saturday in Bangalore; among the first to pad up was Amit Mishra, and one of the first spinners to have a long bowling session was Cheteshwar Pujara, who was visibly delighted to beat Ajinkya Rahane’s outside edge. Pujara maybe had already picked up a tip or two from his buddy Amit Mishra.
“We’ve divided in such a way that batsmen will help bowlers and bowlers will help batsmen, so that whenever we need to play six or seven batsmen, the batsmen can chip in with the ball, bowl seven-eight overs for us,” Mishra said later. “My buddy is Pujara – he bowls a bit of legspin; he can help me with my batting, and I can help with his legspin, so that whenever we might need it, he can bowl seven-eight overs for the team and help us.”
In the coming days when the Test squad will feature some uncertain inexperienced youngsters and an over the top skipper like Virat Kohli, Anil Kumble looks to be the balm which will soothe the nerves.
Kumble still enjoys the stature and the position in Indian cricket to persuade a young team to learn the basics from him. He has always been there and done that. To be frank, he had to encounter more failures than successes, so he has the credibility to understand the mindset of an average young Indian cricketer.