One had to rub their eyes when Gurnoor Brar effortlessly clocked 148 kmph with his fourth delivery of his international career in the first ODI against Afghanistan on Saturday. The languid run-up, the effortless delivery stride, and the pronounced floaty outswingers coming down from six and a half feet can be lethally deceptive for a batter. And then when he got his first international wicket with a ball rearing up from a back of a length to Afghanistan opener Ibrahim Zadran, one couldn't miss the coy smile on India's bowling coach Morne Morkel's face. The sequence brought back memories of Morkel's heyday in international cricket.
As much as the 26-year-old Brar's debut spell of 3/27 would have excited cricket fans, it must have settled a few nerves in the national selection committee. The committee, led by Ajit Agarkar, identified Brar as a long-format bowler a couple of years ago. The committee stuck its neck out in picking Brar for Afghanistan's tour of India over domestic cricket's sensation Auqib Nabi.
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The intriguing part of the Brar story is that he developed all these skills barely three years ago after suffering a stress fracture in 2022. It's important to note that he took up cricket only at the age of 17 at the insistence of his father, a policeman in Punjab Police, to keep him away from bad habits after school. When the world was trapped in their homes during the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020, he sneakily went to coach Varinder Singh and started practicing at the Launching Pad academy in Mohali.
“Gurnoor was around 20 when he came to me. He didn't play junior cricket at the state level. He just wanted to grow, and we used to practice sneakily during lockdown without letting anyone notice us. At that time, he could barely hit 135 kmph and always bowled back of a length,” Varinder told TOI.
During the Sher-e-Punjab T20 league in 2022, Gurnoor suffered a stress fracture. Varinder has done formal courses on biomechanics from local universities and always maintained a data-driven approach in his academy. “We use all sports devices and maintain data of our players in our academy—including sleep patterns and workload. When he broke down, I realized he needed to change his action to increase his pace and get the ball to swing. Earlier, he couldn't swing the ball,” Varinder said.
It's not easy to change a bowling action at the age of 22, especially when one is running out of time to make it to the senior level. The best thing about Gurnoor, according to Varinder, is that he 'submits himself to his coaches'. “He said he was ready to do anything as long as it opened doors for higher level of cricket,” recalled Varinder. He then added: “Even now, whatever feedback he gets from Ashish Nehra at Gujarat Titans and BCCI coaches, he blindly follows it. He didn't get any matches for Titans but he didn't get affected because the communication was clear from Nehra and the selectors. Nehra told him to strengthen his bowling muscles, and we did that.”
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“He loved fried food even if he was working hard to burn it. But he decided to give it up. We drew up a diet, increasing his protein intake from natural resources. And then we got him to bowl more front-on besides changing his wrist position to get the ball swinging. His head used to fall in his lead-up before the delivery. We got it straightened.
“Those were three months of grueling training before the domestic season. He started bowling at 145 kmph in another year,” the coach said proudly after watching his ward consistently bowl at 148 kmph on the international stage. “He can bowl above 150 kmph. Maybe he took it easy on his debut,” Varinder quipped.
The selection panel and the team management have high hopes from Gurnoor. He has been a project that has been carefully handled. It's time to ease him into the big league.
