Lucknow Super Giants bowling coach Bharat Arun has revealed Virat Kohli asked young pacer Prince Yadav how did he bowl the delivery that dismissed him during Royal Challengers Bengaluru’s defeat against Lucknow Super Giants. On Thursday, as Lucknow bounced back to winning ways, Prince delivery to Kohli during the chase became the talk of the town, where he made the ball to come back in and castle the stumps.
“We had a chat with Kohli, and Kohli said, ‘how did he bowl that ball?’ because it’s not very common. Mostly for out-swing bowlers it swings in the air, after pitching the ball tends to come in because of the position of the seam or how it lands. I don’t think any bowler can bowl it at will, but if you are consistently working on your swing, it can be possible, and it was a dream ball,” Arun said of the delivery that dismissed Kohli.
Though Lucknow have endured a horrid season, the performance of Prince has been a bright spot for the franchise. In 10 matches, he has 16 wickets. With ability to clock 140 kmphs and above, his pace was a talking point during the domestic season as well.
“Last year he showed glimpses of what he could achieve. So actually this year during the camps that we had, we discussed his strengths. Under pressure sometimes a bowler goes blank, but under pressure the one who is confident of executing his strengths is going to be most successful in execution. We had a lot of one-on-one chats during the pre-season camps and understood their strength and we went about working perfectly on their strengths, on execution. We challenged them every single session on their executions,” Arun said.
At a point when India’s fast-bowling resources are thin, the emergence of Prince and Mayank Yadav – two bowlers who have raw pace – makes them prospects for India to invest for the future. As far as their potential to play for India, Arun said, it up to the two pacers.
“One reason I joined Lucknow is due to the fact they had really exciting bowlers If you look at Prince, Mohsin (Khan) and even (Mohammed) Shami is doing well and now you have Mayank Yadav who has bowled pretty well. He’s a little short of match practise I would say, but he’s getting there. And we also have other few exciting prospects on hand. If you ask me a question, ‘can they play for India?’ yes they have it in them to play, it’s how well they bring together the talent and get the best out of it is a challenge for them,” Arun said.
Arun, who is credited for India going through a fast-bowling revolution in the last decade, and played a key role in the Test team’s performance as a bowling coach, said he will be working with the players beyond the IPL as well. “See my role in LSG is I’ll be working with most of our players through the year. Not only during the IPL, through the year all of these players, who are free and who will be coming, we are going to have subsequent camps where we are going to work on skill development. And it’s a year-round programme, not just the IPL,” he said.
