India’s bowling coach Bharat Arun has backed captain Virat Kohli’s plan to use five bowlers to win Test matches.
If you look at world cricket, any Test team that dominated always had five bowlers. Probably if we get an all-rounder, preferably a batting all-rounder, it would be very very beneficial for the side.
— Bharat Arun
“Both Ashwin and Harbhajan have two Test centuries and Bhuvi is more than capable with the bat. Our lower-order needs to live up to this challenge,” Arun said.
Sri Lanka has not been a happy hunting ground for the Indian cricket team historically, but Arun does not want to dwell on the past.
Well, I don’t look at too much of what happened in the past. The conditions are pretty similar to that in our country and I believe we have variety in our batting and bowling to adapt to these conditions. The challenge would be to do it as fast as possible to get the best results.
— Bharat Arun
Apart from Murali Vijay, none of the top-order batsmen have played a Test match in the island nation, but Arun feels that it’s hardly going to be a problem.
Well, it was the same scenario when we did go to Australia. There were a lot of players playing for the first time in Australia. But in all four Tests, we put up 400 runs. Not many teams have done that in Australia. It all depends on mentality, how quickly we can overcome shortcomings.
— Bharat Arun
Arun added, “This team is pretty experienced and have done well over last one year. They should come really good in this series.”
The bowling coach also seemed non-committal about the surfaces that will be on offer.
Asked about expectations from the upcoming Board President’s XI warm-up game starting on Thursday, Arun said,” It is a wonderful opportunity to get into match atmosphere. There is no greater preparation than playing a match.”
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