While the head coach said he has the highest respect for Zaheer Khan, he had the right to choose his support staff
Bharat Arun may look under-sized in comparison to Zaheer Khan’s international accomplishments. Arun played in only two Tests for India more than 30 years ago, sharing the new ball with Kapil Dev and took only four wickets in all.
Arun will be remembered for slipping and falling while running in to bowl his first ball in Test cricket while taking the lay-up. He played 46 other first-class matches for Tamil Nadu and South Zone, and was more than a handy batsman besides being a prime medium-pacer for Tamil Nadu.
In comparison, Zaheer is India’s fourth highest wicket-taker with 311 sticks in 92 Tests and has been the India spearhead for a long time with his swinging deliveries and the reverse.
The last few days saw Zaheer Khan being named as bowling consultant of the Indian team. Yet, Arun’s appointment as full-time bowling coach at the insistence of new head coach Ravi Shastri has made people talking about a sort of humiliation for the left-arm pacer.
It was not the case at all.
Arun may dwarf in international cricketing accomplishments compared with Zaheer but he certainly lords over the latter when it comes to coaching.
Arun has been a coach for more than a decade, guiding Unmukt Chand’s India U-19 to title triumph in 2012 while he has been on India ‘A’ tours and mentored youngsters there.
It was no surprise when Shastri wanted Arun as part of his core team that also included Sanjay Bangar as the assistant coach and R Sridhar as the fielding coach until the end of 2019 World Cup.
All the current Indian bowlers credit the 54-year-old Arun for the helping them improve their skills when he was the bowling coach from September 2014 to March 2016 when Shastri was the Team Director. This period included the 2015 Cricket World Cup in Australia-New Zealand and the ICC World T20 in India in early 2016.
It is not for nothing that Arun is the popular choice to be a full-time bowling coach. Kohli wanted him as bowling coach. Shastri would have none other than Arun as the one to guide the India bowlers, the pacers and spinners alike.
Umesh Yadav, Mohammad Shami, Ravichandran Ashwin are lavish in their praise for Arun.
Though Shastri openly welcomed Zaheer as the bowling consultant, he let the Board of Control for Cricket in India known that it was he who was working with the team full time and had the right to choose his own support staff. So, Arun was the automatic choice.
It is another matter that Arun may be Shastri’s good friend from their age-group playing days. But, Shastri is one who will not compromise on quality when it comes to the Indian cricket team.
On Wednesday, prior to the Indian team’s departure to Sri Lanka, the head coach Shastri was asked what made Arun special as a bowling coach.
His answer was: “There is a track record. Fifteen years his life, Arun has been coaching. You look at that track record. It is outstanding. right from junior level to ‘A’ teams to Indian junior World Cup teams, he has been part of. He knows these boys (pointing to Kohli who was sitting to his left) better than I do because he has been in the system for the last 15 years.
“You look at the last (2015) World Cup. India took 77 out of 80 wickets. If Bharat Arun’s name was someone else who has played a lot of Test matches, you would have put him on the top of the tree. So, I don’t need to elaborate too much on what he is good at, what his strengths are. It is there for everyone to see,” Shastri said.
With still no clarity yet on Zaheer’s appointment, Arun is best suited to be India’s bowling coach full time. And, he is no rookie when it comes to coaching.
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