Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) newly-appointed bowling coach, Bharat Arun, has opened up about KKR’s strategy for the upcoming IPL 2022 mega auction, to be held in Bengaluru on February 12 and 13.
Ahead of a much exciting IPL mega auction, the former Indian team bowling coach said that KKR would look to rope in players with the ability to adapt to different conditions in the IPL 15.
However, the BCCI has not yet announced the venues for the IPL 2022, which is slated to begin in the last week of March 2022.
Notably, KKR has retained West Indies all-rounder Andre Russell (Rs 12 crore) and spinner Sunil Narine (Rs 6 crore), as well as Venkatesh Iyer (Rs 8 crore) and Varun Chakravarthy (Rs 8 crore). The franchise will enter the auction with a purse of Rs 48 crores in Bengaluru.
As reported by PTI, Bharat Arun told KKR: “You need to pick players who can adapt to different conditions. Even before the pandemic, when you picked bowlers for home conditions, you still needed them to play seven away games in the IPL.”
He continued, “Having watched most of the top players around the world up close, you have a fair idea as to what they can do. And it helps you to prepare and take your calls better, and also plan more effectively during the matches.”
The bowling coach also believes that the premium fast bowlers will be the center of attraction at the upcoming IPL auction.
He explained, “I sincerely think so, because even though a lot of people think cricket is inclined towards the batsman, I would look at it differently.”
He added, “I would say that therein lies an opportunity for me as a bowler to excel. Yes, there are limitations for bowlers. But again, they know that if they execute and if they can build a little more guile around their bowling, they have a chance to be a hero.”
Arun has played a significant role in transforming India's fast bowling unit into one of the most fearsome attacks in the world of cricket.
Speaking on his stint with Team India, the former bowling coach said: “It has been a privilege to be a part of the Indian team before this. In a way, I was blessed to have had a group of bowlers who are so multi-talented. It was a conscious effort, I think, with Virat (Kohli) and Ravi (Shastri) to be the Number 1 team in the world.”
He concluded, “And to be so, it was important that we win under all conditions. Preparing this bunch of fast bowlers was our biggest challenge and the way they responded... The rest is history. With the Indian side, our goal was always to be Number 1 in any condition. To be able to achieve that objective, I think the biggest challenge was to have bowlers who could excel and who could get to 20 wickets in all conditions. We did exactly that, and that's why we were successful.”
(With PTI Inputs)
