Bowling coach Bharat Arun admitted that Team India was below par while defending the target against Pakistan in the T20 World Cup Super 12 match. India suffered their first-ever defeat against Pakistan in the ICC World Cup events history as they failed to defend the target of 152. Babar Azam and Co stamp their authority to win the match by 10 wickets with 13 balls to spare.
The Indian bowlers failed to produce a fightback as Mohammad Rizwan and Babar Azam powered Pakistan to win.
Arun said that the wicket eased out when during bowling second, however, he admitted that the bowling was a little below-par while defending the target.
“I am not trying to give any excuses but this World Cup, the trend has been that the team which wins the toss has a big advantage especially when you are playing in Dubai. The wicket eases out when you bowl the second time, it is no excuse, we should have done better, we should have batted better. In the first game, we had the chance to defend our total but we looked a little below-par," said Arun while replying to an ANI query during a virtual press conference.
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The ongoing T20 World Cup will be the last assignment for Bharat as the bowling coach of India as the new head coach Rahul Dravid will bring his own staff for his tenure.
Arun walked down the memory lane and said the highest point under his tenure as bowling coach would be back-to-back series wins in Australia where pacers played a crucial role in historic triumphs.
Talking about the high points under his tenure as bowling coach, Arun said: “I think it has been a great and outstanding journey for me, there have been ups and downs but I think the team is in a much better position than it was when we started. Pretty happy about it, the highest point would be the kind of bowling we have, we strived hard to achieve success overseas as a team and we went about achieving that. The highest point would be two back-to-back series wins in Australia."
“More or less winning the series in England, there is one more Test to go, the performance of the team during this English series was outstanding. Actually, it took us a little while, it is a combination of strength and conditioning, the physiotherapy and the bowling department all coming together to create this type of bowling unit. India can always boast of good fast bowlers but the workload management in place ensured that the fast bowlers remained fresh and that we could even rotate," he added.
The bowling coach further talked about the future crops of pacers and said with the workload management in place India will be a force to reckoned with.
“The likes of Mohammed Siraj coming in, Prasidh Krishna, with the workload management in place, I am sure we will be a force to be reckoned with in the near future. Absolutely, not only the volume of cricket our country is playing, but also being in the bubble and playing is not very easy. They do not need sufficient breaks, the mental health is going to be very important. This is going to be the norm for us in the coming year."
“In our country, we have a good pool of fast bowlers so we can afford to field different teams for different formats. Also, it keeps our bowlers mentally and physically fresh," he added.
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