FOR ALL THE RICHES Indian cricket has in terms of talent, there is a unicorn still out there. A young man clocking speeds north of 150km/h, making scouts furiously take notes and fans dream of cartwheeling stumps. Even Jasprit Bumrah, India’s best-ever all-format bowler, doesn’t hit that 150 mark often. Not that he needs to.
There are currently two such unicorns in the Indian setup—Umran Malik from Jammu and Mayank Yadav from Delhi. Both fast, raw and prone to break down. Varun Aaron could write a book on that. And someday, he might. Right now, the former speedster from Jharkhand has found a second wind in his role as commentator and coach. His knowledge of biomechanics and his own experience of lugging around a reluctant body have helped him in this new life.
In episode four of CEAT Beyond The Scoreboard—a podcast series where THE WEEK, in association with CEAT, peels back the curtain on India’s favourite sport—Aaron spoke to Ayaz Memon, consultant, sports, THE WEEK, about a range of topics, including the art and science of fast bowling and how future unicorns can eventually become workhorses.
Part of this is workload management, especially in the case of superstars such as Bumrah. Wrap him in cotton wool, they say. But Aaron said a lot of people don’t understand what workload management really is. “It’s not about doing less or more,” he said. “Let’s imagine workload management as a plateau. The moment you have spikes—bowling too much or too less—is when you have injuries. And that’s happening because there are three formats.... Do you see a sprinter running a 5k in the Olympics? Never. But as a fast bowler, you have to do all three—bowl 20, 10 and four overs a day (depending on the format).”
This prompted Memon to ask if we won’t see many all-formats players in future. “They are, slightly, a dying breed,” said Aaron. “But you will still have them. The best of the best can switch. You’ll probably have specialists for two formats. There’s already a distinction between who plays white ball and who plays red ball.”
Apart from bowling, one of the most talked about aspects of the game is the ball itself—the types, the colour and what that means in the middle. Dukes, Kookaburra and SG are the three major brands used in Test cricket. “Let’s imagine them as three brothers, but one’s a stepbrother,” Aaron said. “The brothers are Dukes and SG, and the stepbrother is Kookaburra. They’re all red balls, but the seam is completely different with the Kookaburra, and so is the hardness.”
In a treat for nerds, he went on to explain in detail what the features of each ball are and how they behave in specific conditions.
He had anecdotes for the casual fans, too. One of them being how, in Australia in 2014, he strayed from the team plan on how to bowl to Steve Smith. “We had a plan to hit him on his pads. I always knew that wasn’t the best plan for me because I was not an inswing bowler. I relied on the ball straightening off the wicket.... So in the last innings, we had set a target of about 170-180 and I came on as first change after Ishant (Sharma) and (Mohammed) Shami. I was like, ‘To hell with the team’s plan’. I had told the analyst the previous night that I’m going to bowl back of length.... Third ball I run in, back of length, my stock ball. It pitches, moves away and he goes for a booming back-foot drive. The ball takes the edge and goes to Virat Kohli. For me it’s a dream unfolding, right? I’ve visualised this a day before and I know I’m going to get him out. [Unfortunately] I hadn’t visualised the end of the dream—Virat dropped the catch.”
A student of legendary Australian pacer Dennis Lillee, Aaron got into fast bowling as a child by watching a programme called Calypso Classics, featuring the West Indian greats. Memon, who has been with the Indian team on a handful of tours to the Caribbean, recalled how certain batters would pull up with a niggle to avoid facing that fearsome pace battery.
He also spoke of how, during those days, India had no fast bowlers except Kapil Dev, and wondered where the surfeit of talent these days had come from. “Lillee’s contribution to Indian fast bowling is very underrated,” said Aaron. “He did more work in India than in Australia, and he brought about a lot of education and structure in the way we trained. That has run off into what you’re seeing now.”
Aaron now hopes to replicate what Lillee did for him as coach and mentor. He has the chance to do so as bowling coach for Sunrisers Hyderabad this season.
And though he’s not in charge of Malik or Yadav, he did have a word of advice for them and other tearaway quicks. “Always bowl fast. That’s their USP. If I was working with them, I would have them fall in love with the game, because fast bowling is beautiful.”