India’s bowling coach Bharat Arun squared up to the media at Old Trafford here on Wednesday and answered a volley of questions dealing with the imminent World Cup clash against the West Indies and the arsenal under his command. He also neatly side-stepped a controversial query on India’s orange jersey for the game involving England. Excerpts:
The West Indies note: They are an outstanding side and play positive cricket. We are aware of the challenges and our plans are in place. It’s a big challenge for the bowlers, especially when they come after you. But whenever batsmen like Chris Gayle or Carlos Brathwaite come after you, there is a chance in it for the bowlers too.
The Afghanistan recap: If you look at our first three games, we put up big scores, but in the Afghanistan match, the wicket was sticky. It was tricky to bat and it was a question of understanding those conditions and adapting to that.
Pandya’s growth: Over a period of time, it was a big challenge for him to bowl 10 overs but he realised that he needed to develop a certain armoury. He has worked on his slower balls and slow bouncers and all this has given him the confidence to go through those 10 overs.
Dhoni’s sedate knock: Had we probably lost a wicket at that stage (when Dhoni and Kedar Jadhav stitched a partnership against Afghanistan), then things would have turned out differently. So I don’t think it’s too much of a concern. There is always a constant dialogue between the batsmen, the support staff, the batting coach and the head coach Ravi Shastri. I can’t really get into the details but there is a constant dialogue for us to improve.
Bhuvneshwar’s fitness: His injury (hamstring) is not of any great concern. It is just a niggle but it gave us an opportunity to plug (Mohammed) Shami into a game. The fact that he has done exceptionally well means that we have an embarrassment of riches and we would take a (selection) call as per the conditions.
Shami’s evolution: Shami was in a totally different mindset (previously when he was dropped) and we — head coach and I — had to speak to him and draw a future map for him and had to convince him regarding that. He was also going through certain personal problems. We made him focus on his cricket and the rest is there for everybody to see.
The orange jersey: To be honest, we are not aware of what colours we are going to be wearing. So we have not given any thought to that and our focus is on the match. We bleed blue, right? Blue is going to be our predominant colour and that’s it.
