Bharat Arun’s sincerity shines though his visage. He is passionate about coaching, is technically suave and possesses man-management skills.
The former Tamil Nadu and South Zone pace bowling all-rounder is enjoying his tenure as the bowling coach of a rather vibrant Indian attack. Arun shared his views in a free-wheeling chat with The Hindu. Excerpts:
The Indian team has a compelling bunch of pacemen now. How would you look at each one of them?
This is a versatile attack, Bhuvenshwar bowls at 135 kmph-plus, swings the ball either way, Shami can produce a magnificent spell out of the blue, Ishant gets bounce, is a workhorse. Bumrah extracts awkward bounce, has an action that is different to pick. Hardik Pandya can be quick.
Given his methods, Bumrah has to be handled carefully, isn’t it?
His action is a little unorthodox and to bowl at that pace with that action puts a lot of strain on his body. So his workload has to be monitored.
The selection of Bumrah in the Indian Test team in South Africa was a gamble but proved a masterstroke. When was the decision taken?
The decision to play Bumrah from the first Test in South Africa was taken much earlier, during the Sri Lankan tour. Bumrah is so accurate, bowls at 140 kmph-plus consistently, and has a good bouncer and a yorker that he bowls at will. Pace with control was the kind of combination we were looking for while going abroad.
Bumrah bowls back of a length, brings it back, gets it to straighten. He has a good short ball. In one-day cricket, most of the batsmen struggle to pick his yorker. His First Class record, when we saw, was pretty good too.
We gave him a break before South Africa tour. He went to NCA to work on his fitness and become stronger.
But then, Bumrah doesn’t bowl long spells, even in Tests.
We knew Bumrah was explosive and someone who was as explosive as Bumrah, you cannot make him bowl more than four overs at a stretch. It takes a lot of toll. The captain also used him beautifully in the Tests, he gave him four over spells. When Bumrah was getting wickets, Kohli gave him the fifth over sometimes.
When we rested Bumrah for one of the one-day games, the South African batting coach came and thanked him for not playing. Bumrah has that kind of an influence.
The team management received flak for leaving out the impressive Bhuvneshwar Kumar from eleven for the second Test at Centurion.
We weigh a lot of factors before we decide on the playing eleven. That was a wicket that looked dry, Ashwin got turn from day one. In fact, we should have played two spinners on that track. Had we played two spinners, we would have had a much better chance of winning. All of us felt that Bhuvneshwar would not be effective on that wicket, there was little lateral movement. Philander did so well in the precious Test but got just one wicket in that Test. We felt more than Bhuvneshwar, we needed a workhorse like Ishant who could also get some bounce. Bhuvi was definitely not rested for that game.
When Bhuvneshwar began his career in first class cricket, he bowled at speeds between 115 and 120 kmph. Can you take us through his transformation from those days to someone bowling between 135 and 140 kmph with control and two-way movement now?
When we assessed Bhuvi, some years back, he was not very strong. I think a lot of credit should go our trainer Shankar Basu. It was in 2014 that Bhuvi made a conscious decision to bowl quicker. We made Bhuvi understand that moving the ball without pace was not sufficient for international cricket.
He started working a lot on his fitness. Basu had devised a fantastic programme for him. Bhuvi did a lot of power-lifting routines in the gym where he developed the strength that would enable him explode. Fast bowling is about explosion.
We also made a slight adjustment in his action to make him a lot more aligned, so that all the forces were towards the stumps.
There was a phase, during India’s tour of Australia in 2014-15, that Bhuvneshwar bowled with pace but lost his swing. How did it all come together again?
Initially Bhuvi increased his pace but could not find his movement. He was pretty worried about it. The thing is in trying to bowl fast you sometimes tend to forget your release position. After that we did a lot of ‘release drills’ with him. It’s a temporary phase if you know what to address. I believe in bowlers getting a feel of the release.
We devised a drill where Bhuvi had to hit the stumps on the full, which also meant he would have to release the ball from the highest point. And when you release from the highest point your wrist become absolutely straight.
Once Bhuvi got his release and wrist position straight, he started swinging the ball again while continuing to bowl a couple of yards faster.
There is a belief that working out in the gym can prove counter-productive to fast bowlers.
There is a very wrong concept that going to gym makes you lose action. If your routine is not specific, if you do the wrong training, the consequences can be bad. But if you do it the right way, it can make you a more potent bowler. Weight training makes you more flexible. If you want to bowl faster over an extended period of time gym work is a must.
Bumrah swears by the gym. Vijay Shankar, if he can go through the right programme, is capable of bowling much quicker.
How do you manage the workload of the pacemen during a Test series abroad where they have a bowl a lot of overs?
Workload monitoring is a must. Between Test matches we don’t make our bowlers bowl a lot. We will probably get them to bowl a day before the Test. On other days, they don’t bowl. They go to the gym, do power work and come a day before the Test.
Bowling a lot between matches can lead to injuries. Pace bowling is not something that comes naturally to a cricketer, it takes a toll on your body. You need to prepare the body and also rest it enough. We are very careful about how much our leading pacemen bowl before the match since we need them to bowl a lot of overs in the Tests.
Why do pacemen get injured? Is it one factor or a combination of them?
Bowlers getting injured could be due to different reasons. One could be faulty action, the other could be a classic case of overload, too much bowling. Then there is the wrong kind of physical preparation, or if there are any inherent physical traits in a bowler that causes injuries. Right programmes, workload monitoring, and real good professional help are needed to prevent injuries.
I’ve heard that there is some very honest talking in the dressing room.
[Head coach] Ravi [Shastri] doesn’t hold back. He can point out shortcomings. He is also quick to appreciate them if they put in the effort. The players respect him because he knows there is going to be no mucking about.
Every cricketer, to whom we give feedback, we have to be extremely honest and direct. Sometimes we being honest can make them a little angry but eventually it is for their benefit. Unless you accept you mistakes you cannot progress. This comes from Virat also, he is extremely honest with himself. There are two things that drive this team – honesty and hard work.
And we are not going to judge you by the outcome but only by the effort you put in. If your effort is not good enough, we will pull you down. The team is playing fearless cricket now. Whatever be the situation, we have to be relentless. The kind of energy that Virat brings in as a captain, batsman, leader is phenomenal. He will not tell you something that he cannot do.
At practice, Virat throws himself at the ball, gives it his everything. He has brought in this great team culture
How effective is video analysis in today’s cricket? Did you work out strategies for the South African batsmen?
We had a look at the matches in South Africa, the strengths of their batsmen, the scoring areas, how they got out, performanes at various venues. Their strong scoring areas were mapped. We did not feed them there.
Can you reveal two strategies that worked for the team against key batsmen?
Quinton de Kock, we knew he could pick a delivery from off and flick it through mid-wicket. We decided to keep it very close to him, his body line, or come into him from outside off. If you see in the Tests, de Kock didn’t get a chance to score in those areas. Earlier, he used to get hundreds against India. And we also took the ball away from him from the off-stump, not give him any width to free his arms.
Hashim Amla, we decided to bowl into him and up to him. If you notice the number of times he got out leg-before, it was the right ploy. In fact, he was trying to avoid being leg-before to Bumrah, that in itself was a victory for us. He had a big initial movement and sometimes left his leg and middle stumps open. If you try to hit the stumps, he would whip you for runs.
So we decided, despite his movement, that we would bowl at the fourth stump and bring the ball back. And if he moved outside off, we would still bowl one stump outside him.
The Indian bowling unit has had problems with no-balls. How are you addressing the issue?
Nets is like practice matches. I monitor their no-ball, I bring it to their notice and correct it then and there. When your rhythm is not there, you bowl no balls, particularly if you want to use the crease to the maximum. The maximum utilisation of the crease is important to bowl that pace and length. The margin of error is small and it is very precise. You cut the crease half and half, even if you go a little over, it is still not a no ball. To change that, I need to change the running pattern. It’s not that if you are bowling a no-ball, you go one step back and bowl. It doesn’t work like that.
Somebody such as Umesh Yadav is not able to make the eleven. Then there are so many young pacemen in the frame such as Navdeen Saini, Basil Thampi, Kamlesh Nagarkoti, and Mohammed Siraj around. Is there finally a pace bowling culture in India?
Let me tell you Umesh is bowling quick and with control in the nets, and it has been very hard leaving him out. All of us have been talking to him. The advent of so many pacemen in the country is a very healthy trend. Half a dozen pace bowlers, waiting in the wings. Most of them are bowling at around 140 kmph. IPL and India ‘A’ tours have helped them evolve.
Do you exchange information with the India under-19 and 'A’ team coach Rahul Dravid?
We share a lot of information with Rahul and the selectors. I am not surprised by Nagargoti’s emergence. There is so much talent in India. We need a system in place where we could nurture that talent. On so many occasions, we have seen fast bowlers disappear after a promising start. If you identify someone with talent, you should have someone who would help them evolve.
You were a pace bowler and a hard-hitting batsman in your career? Are you comfortable guiding the spinners?
To be a coach, you need to study. Though I was a fast bowler, my favourite subject was spin. Playing the game and coaching are different. You playing the game might help you to be a better coach but does not qualify you to be one. You need to study to be a coach, when you do level III coaching.
Earlier, many things were a mystery to us. Like the position of the wrist at release. Which finger acts as a catalyst. Over five years at the NCA as the chief bowling coach, I must have taken over 150 classes. I spoke a lot about spin. Each time you take a class you are asked different questions and you need to convince them with your answers. You learn too and your perspective improves. In fact, I am more passionate about spin than pace bowling.
And there is a lot of talk from Ravi with the spinners, with all of us, sharing his wealth of experience and coming up with strategic inputs.
With the success of Kuldeep Yadav and Yuzvendra Chahal in shorter formats, is there a possibility of one of them figuring in the eleven in the Test series in England given that wrist spinners don’t really need the pitch to turn the ball.
That could be a possibility but we cannot forget the fact that Ashwin and Jadeja, everytime they have played on conditions that are quite favourable, have won the match for us.
In the conditions in England, we are playing in the latter half too, it can be nice and sunny, and the wickets could also be conducive to spin. And a good wrist spinner always causes problems to the batsman. No batsman can overcome a wrist spinner easily. There is a possibility of one of them playing but first I would go ahead with the time tested combination of Ashwin and Jadeja.
How impressed have you been with Kuldeep and Chahal?
A spinner is someone, who, with his guile, is able to fox the batsman in the air. Both Kuldeep and Chahal can do this. Sometimes you don’t read which way the ball is going to turn.
Chahal is exhuberent, Kuldeep is more sober. Chahal was a former chess champion, is very intelligent as a bowler. Kuldeep brings with him a lot of confidence and skill. Chahal is like a terrier, the more you hit, the more he comes at you and in the meantime can produce a beauty. It is very difficult to drop them from the eleven in the one-day side.
Kuldeep and Chahal, when they play together, are a formidable combination. They are attacking bowlers who are getting wickets in the middle overs. Someone like Washington Sundar has also being doing exceptionally well in the Power Plays. He is another kid who can bowl and bat and is an exciting prospect.
How confident is the Indian team ahead of the England series?
We draw a lot of belief from what we did in South Africa. We wanted to look at the away conditions as a home away from home. It was a mind-set change. We have ample time to prepare for the Test series in England, we have tour games, the one-day series before the Tests. The pacemen need to adapt, have to bowl a length that is just short of drivable. I am sure they will be able to do that.
