India’s U-19 pacer Kamlesh Nagarkoti, who has now become the common name in India now, wants to emulate Mohammed Shami and Bhuvneshwar Kumar and said he tries to put himself in their shoes to tackle the tricky situations.
After arriving back to Mumbai from New Zealand, talking to the reporters, Nagarkoti said, “I keep Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Mohammed Shami in mind whenever there is a particularly tricky situation facing me. I try to think how they would have bowled and try to emulate that. I haven’t met them yet, hopefully, in the coming days I will get a chance to chat with them.”
Nagarkoti took nine wickets at 16.33 to help India win a record fourth World Cup title in New Zealand, said he is looking forward to performing in the Vijay Hazare trophy and then the Indian Premier League. He said, “I am focused now on playing the one-day matches in the Vijay Hazare Trophy and then the IPL later. I’ll try to do well in both. I will try not to let up on speed, but will try to bowl according to the situation.”
Kamlesh’s partner Shivam Mavi is also looking forward to doing well in the IPL to secure a place in the India A team. Mavi said, “Looking forward to the IPL. It opens up a lot of opportunities. It’s a good platform to showcase our talent and make a case for India A or other senior domestic tournaments. In the IPL I would like to focus on line and length rather than speed. There even if you bowl over 160kph, you still might get hit. My dream is consistently bowl over 150kph.”
Nagarkoti and Mavi were the pace spearheads of the U-19 team as they clocked 145+ kmph during the World Cup. Talkin about the same, Kamlesh said, “I did not expect bowling that fast. This was the second time that I have managed to clock such a high speed. I had done it once in England, so this was the second time. While the pace was in focus, (bowling coach) Paras Mhambrey sir taught us how to bowl in the right areas. That was our main focus.”
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Nagarkoti said bowling in tandem with fellow pacer Mavi helped him a lot. He said, “I started playing since 7th-8th. Bowling in tandem with Shivam (Mavi) worked quite well for us. It was a great experience. When your partner is bowling well and supporting you, then bowling in that flow was quite satisfying.”
Mavi also explained the importance of learning to bowl consistent yorkers, he said, “I worked on the yorker in particular. In the slog overs, if even a few boundaries can be contained it makes a major impact on the game. So yorkers were key and I kept trying to aim at bowling as many as possible with accuracy.”
