The Indian cricket team has always been known to produce great batsmen, however, in recent times, Indian bowlers are doing most of the job for the team, especially in limited-overs cricket.
India’s bowling coach, Bharat Arun reckons that the biggest challenge for the team in the upcoming days will be to enhance their bowling potential in order to maintain their dominance form across formats.
During a recent chat with India Today, Arun said, “This Indian team is blessed with bowlers who are so versatile. The biggest challenge would be to make them perform time and again to maintain the level of consistency. For that I need to create a pool of players, all of whom can come in anytime and do their job.”
Indian bowling coach showered praises for Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Jasprit Bumrah for their brilliant death bowling performances, which helped India thrash Sri Lanka (5-0) and Australia (4-1). He said, “It’s quite a privilege to have bowlers who are so versatile, especially Bumrah and Bhuvneshwar. They are extremely skillful when it comes to death bowling; they have variety and know when to use their skills perfectly to do well in death overs.”
He further elaborated, “My job as a coach is to give them the right feedback so that they understand themselves better. To speak about their strengths so that they are able to use their skills effectively. And that’s exactly what these two have done.”
Since the Sri Lanka tour, premier spin-duo of Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja being left out of the limited-overs setup, talking about the same Bharat said that the management is keen on giving Kuldeep Yadav and Yuzvendra Chahal some opportunities to prove themselves in various situations before finalizing their bowling lineup for the 2019 Cricket World Cup.
Arun also went on to point out that Kuldeep’s biggest challenge will be to adapt as a bowler, especially when he gets hit for maximums. He said, “Kuldeep is someone who is extremely talented but each team has enough videos with them to study every bowler and understand the bowlers better. So I think the challenge for every bowler is to evolve and to have variations that are difficult for batsmen to pick. What we discuss with Kuldeep is when you do get hit, there are lots of lessons to be learned. Also, understand the batsmen better and at the end, constantly evolving is the key for Kuldeep.”
The former Indian Test cricketer concluded by commending the effort of Hardik Pandya and stating that the all-rounder will play crucial roles in India’s overseas matches. He said, “Pandya is an extremely talented all-rounder and from Hardik’s point of view, he is a very quick learner. What we are really working on with Hardik is if he can really bring in those 10 overs in ODIs. He’s working a lot on his skills and he’s not afraid to try, probably one of the most fearless cricketers you can have in the side and it makes our job easier.”
