Kamal Ghorui
LUCKNOW: Lucknow Super Giants have been feeling the heat in IPL this season. With just two wins from six games, LSG are just a spot above bottom-placed Kolkata Knight Riders in the points table. However, LSG’s bowling coach Bharat Arun doesn’t seem to be too concerned about their below par show and is hopeful of the team bouncing back in matches ahead. Excerpts from an interview Your team conceded more than 250 runs against Punjab Kings. What exactly went wrong for LSG? I will not read too much into that one game. Our bowling unit has done really well in the previous matches. Sometimes a game like that can happen. At certain stages, even the choice of balls may not have been ideal. But there is no major cause for concern because our bowlers are good enough to make a strong comeback. You would have seen in the earlier games that our bowlers executed our plans very well. These things can happen. Sport is also about failure and, more importantly, how strongly you respond to it. That defines the kind of sportsman you are.
Did the lack of early wickets put too much pressure in the middle overs? We did get an early wicket, but after that their batters played very well. In the Powerplay, our choice of balls was not great, and that is something we can improve on. If you are bowling badly, that is a bigger problem. But if the issue is about making the right choices, that can certainly be corrected in the coming matches. You have not been able to capitalise on the home advantage. Are the conditions not suiting your attack? No, I don’t think that is the case. If you look at it, our bowling has been reasonably good at home. It is more a case of our batting being one good match away from really clicking. Even in the Punjab game, despite the loss, the positive was that our batters got close to 200. That is encouraging for us, and I’m sure the batting group would have taken confidence from that effort. How are you managing the overseas vs Indian bowler balance? Our bowling attack is predominantly Indian. In fact, apart from Anrich Nortje, who was injured and has gone back, we haven’t really had an overseas presence in the bowling group. But this is a very exciting Indian bowling unit, and we have a lot of belief in them. Which phase of the innings concerns you most right now: powerplay, middle overs, or death? I can’t reveal exactly what the data says right now, but we are aware of the areas we need to address. We have already reshuffled the bowling roles, and barring one game, it has worked quite well. So it is not a major concern for us at this stage. If the same PBKS batting lineup came at you tomorrow, what would you do differently from ball one? We would definitely work things out differently, but that is something you will see if and when we play them again.
