Posters of KS Bharat adorned the road leading to the Dr YS Rajashekharareddy ACA VDCA stadium, Visakhapatnam welcoming the local boy as he gears up to play his maiden Test in his home ground. The Andhra Cricket Association also facilitated the 30-year-old stumper today, but Bharat is keeping his emotions aside and is looking forward to the 2nd Test against England as any other game.
“There will be a lot of noise when you are playing for your country. There will be good noises, bad noises, but the thing is you will have to be in the present moment. For me which is a pride moment playing in front of your home crowd, but if you look at the bigger picture, there is a test game which is supposed to be played and my whole focus and our whole focus is definitely on that,” said Bharat during the pre-match press conference.
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India do not often find themselves trailing in a home series, and Bharat said that the team’s focus is to bounce back well and they have done that in the past very well. “We are very good at bouncing back after 1-0, but this is a long Test series and we definitely want to play some good brand of cricket,” he said, adding that the atmosphere in the camp despite the loss is quite relaxed.
“After the game, the atmosphere is absolutely relaxed. [Seniors] They told us not to panic, which we are not. As we as individuals have to focus on the good things and things which we want to do well and do it in the coming Test games,” he said.
And one of the things that Indian batters clearly did during the two training sessions ahead of the 2nd Test was sweep and sweep and sweep. England had put of Indian spinners with their unorthodox shot-making and Bharat had the best seat in the house.
“They [England] played really good shots. They are allowed to play good shots. Rohit bhai was speaking to us, Jadeja on the lengths, line but at the end of the day if someone batted well, you have to give credit to them. He [Pope] batted us out in the second innings. In cricket and in any sport you have to learn and move forward,” Bharat said about England’s approach and how India responded.
Asked about why the Indian batters did not go about employing the shot more often, Bharat stated that while most of the players are adept at playing across the line because they are played a lot of cricket in these conditions, to use it in a match comes down the individual.
“Playing in India, we play a lot of cricket on these tracks. It’s not that we don’t know how to sweep, reverse sweep or pedal, but on that particular day depending on the situation we as batters take our calls,” said Bharat adding, “And it is very clear to us to bat with freedom. We also practiced the reverse sweeps before the first game. but playing out in the centre, it is the batters’ individual plan. If the team demands us to play in a certain way then we are up to it. But individually we have separate plans and looking to do well as batters.
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While England head into the 2nd Test without their lead spinner Jack Leach, who is ruled out due to a knee injury, India have issues of their own to counter with KL Rahul and Ravindra Jadeja out for this Test and with Kohli already unavailable, India’s batting looks inexperienced. There is a high possibility of Rajat Patidar making his Test debut and Sundar may come in to fill in Jadeja’s batting role and Kuldeep for the bowling. Though Bharat concedes that the team will miss the experience of the senior players, but India’s bench strength is always ready to take up challenges.
“Their experience definitely counts, but you look at youngsters like us. We have played a lot of domestic cricket and we have played a lot of cricket. It’s unfortunate for them to miss, but then our bench strength is always ready for a challenge on these kind of tracks. And the guys walking in, I am sure they will definitely do well and take it forward,” he added.
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