T20 World Cup: Really heartening to see the way Arshdeep developed in last few months, says Dravid

Adelaide:  In the last few months, the emergence of young left-arm pacer Arshdeep Singh has been one of the best things to have happened for the Indian team in T20Is.

With no Jasprit Bumrah for the Men’s T20 World Cup, Arshdeep has stepped up for India in the tournament, being their current leading wicket-taker with seven wickets at an economy rate of 7.83, and striking with the new ball against Pakistan and South Africa.

His development in international cricket has been something which has been very heartening for Rahul Dravid, the current India head coach, who is looking upto Arshdeep to address India’s death bowling woes.

“Look, it’s an area of our game that we’ve wanted to look to address, to look to get better at. Obviously Bums (Bumrah) was one of our guys who was penciled in to bowl two of those overs. It was really heartening for us to see the way young Arshdeep Singh has developed over the last few months.”

“If you were to ask me in November when I first took over and I had a list of bowlers in my mind, sure, Arshdeep was there, but he was, certainly he hadn’t had that kind of IPL. He had one good IPL. But the way he’s come along after that, he’s come and forced his way into the side and done really well. So that’s a fantastically heartening thing to see,” said Dravid in the pre-match press conference ahead of India’s match against Bangladesh on Wednesday.

Dravid, who was India U19 coach when Arshdeep was a member of the Men’s U19 World Cup winning team in 2018, acknowledged that death overs showings against Pakistan and Netherlands showed India still has to get better in that department.

“Again, someone like Shami and Bhuvi bowled really well for us. So, we have to keep developing and getting slightly better with our plans and our strategies around those games. I won’t read too much into the Netherlands game, to be very honest. We were trying to get a few wickets, and you’re trying a few things at the back end.”

“Pakistan I think we considered 53 or 54 runs. There were a few balls there that — Shaheen Shah Afridi hit us for a six, and there was another full toss which I think Haris Rauf hit for six, which we looked at it and thought maybe we could have done things slightly differently. Don’t concede those six runs and actually a pretty good powerplay.”

“So there’s one or two balls there that hopefully we can get right and get better as we go along, but, certainly an area we — in all areas we want to get better, but that’s certainly one we’re looking at.”

Against South Africa at Perth, India catching and fielding was below-par. Aiden Markram had a huge slice of luck at 35 when a juggling Virat Kohli dropped a simple catch at deep mid-wicket in the 12th over.

In the next over, as Miller called for a tight single, Markram had another reprieve when captain Rohit Sharma missed an underarm direct hit at stumps on striker’s end. Sandwiched between the two chances shelled by India was Suryakumar Yadav missing the stumps at striker’s end as Miller called for a quick single.

“We’ve been good, and there were a few opportunities that we could have taken in the last game. That happens. I thought we were very good in the other two games. I thought we were very good against Pakistan in that game in some very difficult conditions.”

“So, it is a very important format. Margins are so small. Every opportunity that you take, especially when you’ve only managed to score 133, you’ve got to take it. We didn’t. It’s not because of lack of effort or anything,” added Dravid.

In Super 12s till now, India have dropped five catches out of 15 chances offered to it. Dravid signed off by saying fielding improvements will come by sticking to the processes.

“Again, it’s just the nature of the game. Some days those direct ones hit. You hit those, and they hit from anywhere. Some days they don’t, and the ball goes to the best fielder in the park. It can happen.”

“It’s a great lesson in humility. This can happen to anyone. Can’t read too much into these things. We keep doing our processes, keep working hard and keep doing the things that we need to do.”

–IANS