Debasis Sen, Delhi: India’s bowling Coach Bharat Arun on Sunday took a jibe at Dinesh Chandimal and co., stating that Virat Kohli didn’t required an anti-pollution mask to bat for nearly two days in the third Test here.
The Indian captain struck a career-best 243, batting nearly seven and half hours on a controversy-marred second day when Sri Lankan players forced an Indian declaration by halting play for 26 minutes, citing uneasiness due to poor air quality caused by smog.
“Virat batted close to two days. He did not need a mask. We are focussed on what we need to do. The conditions are the same for both teams and we are not too bothered about it,” Arun said after the post day’s play in Delhi.
The Sri Lankan cricketer’s tactics of putting pressure on the umpires did not go down well with the Indian team management.
“I think the umpires and the match referee have a job on h nd and it’s not up to the players to go and protest. They know what they are doing. When the play was unnecessarily being stopped, we just wanted to get on with the game because our focus is to win this Test match,” Arun said.
He made it clear that the Indian team was not too worried about the pollution.
“I think pollution is everywhere in our country. This pollution levels are serious in our country. I don’t think we were too worried about pollution. The BCCI scheduled this matches and our job is to get the best out of our team. Focus is more on that.”
The former Tamil Nadu bowler agreed to a certain extent the protest could have broken Kohli’s rhythm.
“They wanted to probably stress upon the pollution part and our focus was totally different,” Arun said sarcastically. “It could have broken his (Kohli) rhythm. Yes, but at that point, we had to move on and Ravi had to go into the field and tell the umpires to get on with the game.”
Talking about Kohli’s phenomenal run with the bat in the last 17 months wherein he scored 6 double hundreds, Arun said, “His absolute focus is one thing and attention to detail is the key. In terms of fitness and game preparation, he is spot on. He is an example of what you need to be as a cricketer.”
Lastly, talking about the declaration, the bowling coach said, “We were looking at a total of 550. It was pretty close to that. So we thought we might as well declare.”