Team India’s new coach Ravi Shastri along with BCCI’s four-member committee revealed that former Indian bowling coach Bharat Arun will have another stint with men in blue till the World Cup 2019. After being appointed India’s bowling coach for the second time, Arun’s first assignment will begin with the upcoming tour to Sri Lanka.
However, he will also face the challenge of working with a formidable bowling attack and ensure it can perform on a consistent basis on all soils, including Australia, South Africa and England.
Arun’s cricketing career has not been impressive but his efforts in the domestic circuit as a coach have been noteworthy. It also brought him the much-needed recognition, helping him to secure the role of India’s bowling coach.
His coaching career started with Tamil Nadu in 2002, where he continued to work for four years and led the team into the finals of Ranji Trophy twice, in 2003 and 2004 respectively.
Later, he became the chief bowling coach at the National Cricket Academy in 2008 and in between, he also helped India ‘A’ win three quadrangular series in Australia. He also became the coach of India Under-19 team and helped them win eight consecutive series victories, followed by the U-19 World Cup triumph in 2012.
Arun is known as a person who builds a friendly connection with young bowlers and encourages them to produce their best in training sessions. In first class matches, he also makes them aware of the technical flaws involved in their bowling and also how to progress.
In 2014, he was appointed as Kings XI Punjab’s bowling coach as well where he led the team into the final of the IPL and eventually he was made the bowling coach of the Indian cricket team in 2014, with Shastri being the team director.
He expressed his views on coaching, a few years back in a conversation with ‘The Hindu’, where he said,”The coach’s job is to bring balance and stability to a cricketer’s game without changing his natural style. A coach cannot look at the perfect picture but has to seek a method that would suit a cricketer best.
Instructing a cricketer to follow a rigid method is limiting his mind and skill. You got to support him to discover himself as a player. Awareness of his own game will give him that clarity of mind.”
Meanwhile, Arun has earlier worked with the majority of Indian bowlers, including Umesh Yadav, Varun Aaron, Mohammad Shami, Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Ravindra Jadeja. His earlier experience of working in home and away conditions will definitely help him to understand these bowlers well and get along easily for the crucial upcoming away tours including Sri Lanka, South Africa and Australia.
However, his main focus will be on the 2019 World Cup, where he will try his best by gathering all his coaching experience and build an attacking, balanced and formidable bowling unit, which can prove to be effective in crunch and pressure situations of the match.
