Kolkata Knight Riders bowling coach Bharat Arun has said that his IPL franchise needs players who can adapt to all conditions for the upcoming seasons. The franchise is left with a 48 crore purse after having retained Andre Russell, Sunil Narine, Varun Chakravarthy and Venkatesh Iyer for IPL 2022.
Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) have won the coveted IPL trophy two-time since the inception of the Indian Premier League (IPL). Ahead of the IPL 2022, KKR have retained Andre Russell, Sunil Narine, Varun Chakravarthy and Venkatesh Iyer, and the Kolkata-based franchise will be looking forward to purchasing talented cricketers in the upcoming mega auction.
KKR have a 48 crore purse remaining and will have to spend it smartly in the auction scheduled on February 12 and 13 in Bengaluru. Sharing the franchise’s plans for the upcoming season, KKR bowling coach Bharat Arun stressed the fact that his team will be looking to get players who can adapt to all conditions.
“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,” Arun said in a chat with kkr.in.
“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.”
Arun also feels that bowlers can make an impact in the 15th edition of the cash-rich league.
“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 explained.
“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 the experience of serving as bowling coach of the Indian cricket team. The former Indian cricketer has been often credited with transforming the national side’s bowling unit into a world-class attack.
Arun said that he was blessed to have a bunch of multi-talented bowlers during his tenure as India bowling coach.
“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,” he stated.
“It was a conscious effort, I think, with Virat (Kohli) and Ravi (Shastri) to be the Number 1 team in the world. 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 conditions. 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,” he added.
