I find Ashwin very unique, says Paras Mhambrey

All’s well that ends well. After ending his 31-month association as India’s bowling coach, Paras Mhambrey – a member of Rahul Dravid’s trusted lieutenants from the batch of 1996 – opens up on his stint and spells out the secrets of India’s squad and some of the individuals. Excerpts

How would you sum up your stint?

For me, two and a half years would be satisfying on a personal front. I still remember taking up this assignment two and half years back when Rahul (Dravid) called me and asked me if i would be interested in doing the Indian team. I had worked with Rahul prior to that with the junior team and the A (set-up), so there was a great rapport with him and obviously based at the NCA also helped. It was a no-brainer for me. I just grabbed the opportunity, happy to work with the elite, the best in the world. It was rewarding. It was satisfying. A great opportunity to learn from the best.

The more you interact with someone like Ashley, Rohit (Sharma) or Virat (Kohli), there’s a lot to learn about the batters’ perspective… I feel Ash (R. Ashwin) is one of the greatest match-winners this country has produced. To be able to learn from him. To be able to have those conversations. I have grown as a person and as a coach as well.

It’s been a wonderful stint, a lot of happy memories. Yes, there were challenges as well. I wouldn’t deny that and glad that we overcome that, that one important ICC Trophy hurdle that really eluded us for such a long time. I am really glad and happy that finally we could win that tournament and that was the end of the association.

Can you elaborate on the three phases of your stint – the one till the 2022 T20 World Cup, then the 2023 World Cup and the last six months of extension?

Let’s talk about the World Cup that happened in Australia. If you look at the way the semifinal went — when you lose in the manner we lost — people do talk. I do understand that a lot of people have an opinion and everyone was upset. Not only the public but the players themselves were very upset and that hurt us. People do conveniently forget also that the host nation didn’t qualify (for the knockouts).

Can you imagine if that would have happened in India that the host nation wouldn’t have qualified. We sat down and said what do we need to do differently. To reach the semifinals of the T20 World Cup in those conditions, you know we had done well, but we needed to think back and say what do we need to do differently. We sat and with Rahul and everyone said okay, what are the things that we need to work on and what are the pool available with us and how do we work there? So the plan actually started from there.

The next target was the 50-over World Cup, in India. We knew what the pressures were. We knew what we were about to encounter because when you interact with people, everyone wants to win the World Cup, right? You can’t run away from it. How do you kind of cocoon yourself from the fact that yes, there is the World Cup coming in. Yes, it’s in Indian conditions but eventually you will have to play good cricket.

The other nations are out there to win that cup. It’s not only us that going to be participating, though. The challenge is going to be there. You had to look at the kind of bowlers you were looking for based on the venues because India is a unique nation. You go to north with the different soil, you go to south, there’s a different soil, east has different soil. You play central or west, it’s a very different soil, so the soils matter. We required a combination that will be able to play in every venue because we were the only team for whom, every game had a different venue. We were not based where in a particular stadium we play 3-4 games, we knew that we were playing in different venues. And we learned our lessons from 2022, which culminated with the T20 World Cup.

Do you recall any specific conversation with any of the seniors?

Just in general and the conversation doesn’t have to be like a planned one. Just sitting over tea or coffee or whatever, just on the ground and know when people are bowling, just trying to understand them better as bowlers and persons. I find Ash very unique. Very few people who are at that stage of their career — someone with more than 500 Test wickets — who still come with the intensity of a rookie; shows in the amount of bowling he does. I found it unique and just the kind of understanding of what is it that drives him; to understand that comes every day, for 12 years of his career, he has done the same thing. He still bowls for hours in the nets. I have never seen any other bowler doing that. He is one of the very few bowlers to have reinvented himself, who has made himself… how do I put it… reliable in white-ball cricket. At a stage when everyone said no to an off-spinner in T20s, look at the way reinvented himself. You know, completely different. Made himself relevant to T20s. You see Ash coming up with different kind of balls – knuckle balls, carrom balls, what not! And you look at Test cricket, he is the king and no doubt about it.

Kuldeep’s transformation has been phenomenal. What were the specifics you worked on together?

I remember the conversation we had when we went to Sri Lanka during the pandemic. We went there as support staff in 2021 when some of the others were in England. Kuldeep was out there, he was just not in the Indian team. He was not around the Indian circuit for a while. I remember having a little conversation with him, it was technical work. You could understand standing in the nets what he was trying to achieve and you could relate with the fact that he wasn’t happy with the results. We discussed some technical stuff that may help him in rotating the arm better, cutting down slightly on his speed and hitting the desired length correctly. It actually started from there. Once you do that and you build that confidence with each other, the process just smoothens.

If you were to pick a bowler or two who managed to actually surprise you pleasantly by going a notch higher than you expected, who would it be?

For sure, Arsh (Arshdeep Singh) is right up there. I have seen Arsh since the Under-19 level. To be part of that under-19 team (in 2018), he was just a rookie coming in, just played one game in that World Cup in New Zealand, you could see a little glimpse of what he had. One was obviously the ability to shape the ball, which was very rare at that time. Someone who would swing and then later on, seeing him a lot with the T20 format. When I saw him playing for Punjab (Kings) in IPL for the first time, I thought he has turned up well. The way he showed the progress was definitely very impressive. He has a great head on his shoulder, ability to handle pressure and clarity of thoughts.

Every time he has the option to bowl a particular ball, he chooses the right ball and executes it well. He has worked on his bowling and it’s great to see the kid emerging into one of your mainstays, especially in T20s.

Obviously Prasidh (Krishna) has a lot of potential out there. Kuldeep (Sen) was one of them, obviously being injured set him back. I am not talking too much about Avesh and Khaleel since they are part of the squad regularly, but some of these guys, Mayank (Yadav) in recent times has shown a lot of potential and we really need to manage him well. He has the unique ability of bowling accurate at high pace. Even Mohsin (Khan) is different, he has got a little extra something with his bounce. He might surprise you with extra pace and bounce as well. We need to we need to manage them going ahead.

And anyone who has either stagnated or dropped down the order over the last couple of years?

I won’t say disappointed, but someone like Umran (Malik). We need to guide him. He needs to play for a state which has proper structure. Unfortunately, he is playing for a state where there is no proper structure. Playing for a state with a proper structure, playing a lot of cricket will definitely help him. We need someone to make that call for him and make sure that he plays for a state where he plays a lot of cricket. He has the potential, a quick guy who can bowl in the mid-140s. consistently, but someone to guide him at this stage and saying, okay, fine, just play cricket and how do we take this, take his game forward.

Others like (Kamlesh) Nagarkoti and (Shivam) Mavi have been lost in all this and maybe overlooked by the associations or over-bowled by the associations. Over-bowled is perhaps the right word, and that’s a little concern because a lot of these guys, when they come into the India team, are really burned by their state teams. So we have to be a little smart with them.