Four years ago in Mysuru, as Karnataka struggled to bowl out an obstinate Jharkhand side on the final day of their Ranji Trophy group fixture, S. Arvind tried one last trick. On a Gangotri Glades pitch that offered little for seamers, he abandoned his left-arm pace for spin.
The move worked as opener Bhavik Thaker, who had made a stubborn 63, was bowled. The match eventually petered into a draw but Arvind had demonstrated yet again that he was a smart cricketer. And that when Karnataka most needed a breakthrough, he was the man to turn to.
“You definitely need to work on it,” he says, when asked about thinking on his feet. “It’s not easy to get everything right. Our performance on the field depends on how well we do in practice. A match situation should be created in the practice session. You need to keep repeating it, even if you are tired.”
Karnataka continues to rely on Arvind's incisive, miserly bowling as he heads into his ninth season of first-class cricket. “There is no big secret [to my consistency],” he smiles. “It is purely hard work. I try to bowl the right length. My main strategy is to make the batsmen play. Bowling well in tandem with your partner is important and it gives you wickets.”
Arvind believes in bowling 'dry'. “I try to bowl more maiden overs,” he says. “I think that if I bowl five maiden overs I can get two wickets. So it is important to pitch it in the right areas and shape the ball. Even on hard or flat surfaces you need to swing the ball.”
Those skills will be put to the test again when Karnataka begins its 2017-18 Ranji Trophy campaign against Assam in Mysuru. “We can definitely match the standard of the teams that won the six titles (in 2013-14 and 14-15),” he says.
“There is no additional pressure [to win trophies]. But there is always match pressure. We want to win every match. The last two years, we didn't start well, and we don't want that again.”
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