Subroto Banerjee, the former India swing bowler, who guided Vidarbha's Ranji Trophy-winning team as their bowling coach, sees no reason why pacer Rajneesh Gurbani will not don India colours
Subroto Banerjee
ADVERTISEMENT
Subroto Banerjee, the former India swing bowler, who guided Vidarbha's Ranji Trophy-winning team as their bowling coach, sees no reason why pacer Rajneesh Gurbani will not don India colours. However, he has advised the bowler, who claimed eight wickets in the recently-concluded final against Delhi at Indore, not to think too much about being picked for India.
'Continue bowling to your line and length and concentrate on swinging the ball. Your India chance will surely come one day,' is what Banerjee told the young civil engineer. Banerjee, who was part of the Indian team on their 1991-92 tour of Australia, was not willing to pick the best Vidarbha bowler of the season despite Gurbani's heroics in the semi-final against Karnataka and final.
"I am a coach. For me, every bowler is same. In this Vidarbha team, we sent out a message that every member of the team is equal," he said. Gurbani, dangerous with his outswingers, worked hard on his incoming deliveries for the last two and a half months. Banerjee lauded the players' discipline in their quest to be domestic kings. The bowling coach revealed that the players were told to restrict the use of their mobile phones and they were happy to oblige.
"We also planned for every opposing batsman and the bowlers stuck to the strategy. For instance, we noticed Gautam Gambhir having a problem with incoming deliveries and in the first innings, the off-spinner (Akshay Wakhare) did the trick."
Catch up on all the latest sports news and updates here
Download the new mid-day Android and iOS apps to get updates on all the latest and trending stories on the go