'He came into the dressing room, threw his cap and said 'Ab kya karna hai?'': Bharat Arun recalls Lord's Test
Former India bowling coach Bharat Arun has recalled an incident from the 2021 Test against England when an India pacer was seething with frustration.
In 2021, India enjoyed one of their best years in Test cricket. After registering a handsome come-from-behind win in Australia where India scripted arguably their greatest Test series victory of all time, the Men in Blue embarked on another tough assignment in England, and put up an equally gritty effort there. Having not won a Test series there since 2007, Virat Kohli's spirited Indian unit drew the first Test in Nottingham, lost at Headingley and won at two most iconic stadiums in the country - Lord's and The Oval. India had England on the mat when rain washed away the final day's play at Nottingham, after which the action shifted to Lord's. And at the home of cricket, Kohli's men emerged victorious by a thumping 151-run margin.
KL Rahul struck a magnificent century in the first innings before Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammed Shami's rearguard effort in the second gave England 271 to win. Besides, Mohammed Siraj had a ball of a match picking up four wickets each in either inning. However, one game changing spell that no one talks about much is that of Ishant Sharma's. The India pacer returned a brilliant spell of fast bowling in the first innings picking up 3/69 dismissing Jos Buttler, Moeen Ali and Sam Curran. This came at a crucial juncture in the match as England were racing away with a strong partnership between then captain Joe Root and Jonny Bairstow. Bharat Arun, who was Team India's bowling coach revealed that Ishant was fuming at the fact that he or India weren't able to break the partnership and was tough to speak to when he tried to make the India pacer understand.
"Even now, very recently during the Lord's Test which we won, in the first innings, there was a long partnership being built. He came into the dressing room, threw his cap and said 'Ab kya karna hai? (What do we do now?). I said 'You have to be consistent'. He replied saying 'You keep mentioning being consistent; when will we show aggression? He said that to me. I wanted for him to cool down and told him at tea time. Just before he walked in, I had a word with him 'Consistency with aggression. When I said consistency, I didn't just mean to keep bowling in the same area. With aggression you do it). Then he said 'Ok, fine,'" Arun said on the show 'The Rise of New India' on Cricbuzz.
Arun was not only responsible in turning around Mohammed Shami's career but also had a role to play in Ishant's second-coming for India. Ishant, only the second India bowler to scalp 300 Test wickets, who became more lethal and dangerous under the Ravi Shastri-Virat Kohli regime, recalled his first meeting with Arun way back and explained how his relation with the former bowling coach developed over time.
"When I first met him at the NCA, I had a long chat with him. So later when he became the bowling coach, it never felt as if I didn't know him. He was a totally different person. He was wonderful at man management. He was like a cotton that soaked all the pressure. He would take everyone's aggression and pass it on to others in his own way by channelling it. If things didn't go as per my plan, I would get every upset, so he would come to me, ask me to calm down, ask me stuff. Then he would suggest me things. That way, our bonding got better gradually," the India pacer added.
