One had to rub one’s eyes when Jurnor Brar easily scored 148kmph with the fourth delivery of his international career in the first ODI against Afghanistan on Saturday. The slow run, easy delivery stride and obvious floating wings coming down from six-and-a-half feet can be deadly deceptive to a putter. And then, when he took his first international wicket with a lofted ball off the back of Afghanistan opener Ibrahim Zadran, one couldn’t miss the sheepish smile on the Indian bowling coach. Morne Morkelface. The sequence brought back memories of Morkel’s days in international cricket. As much as 26-year-old Brar’s debut on 3/27 excited cricket fans, it must have eased some tension in the national selection committee. Led selection committee Ajit Agarkarwas identified as a long-form bowler two years ago. The committee was keen to select Brar for the Afghanistan tour of India instead of local cricketer Aqib Nabi. The interesting part of Brar’s story is that he only acquired all these skills three years ago after suffering a stress fracture in 2022. It is important to note that he only took up cricket at the age of 17 on the insistence of his father, a Punjab Police constable, so that he would not indulge in bad habits outside of school. When the world was confined to their homes during the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020, he sneakily went to coach Varinder Singh and started training at the Launching Pad Academy in Mohali. “Gurnur was around 20 years old when he came to me. Gurnur was around 20 years old,” Varinder told TOI. He was not playing junior cricket at state level. He just wanted to grow and we were secretly training during the lockdown without letting anyone notice us. At that time, he could barely reach 135 kilometers per hour and was always throwing the ball back a long way.” During the Sher-e-Punjab T20 League in 2022, Jurnor suffered a stress fracture. Varinder has conducted formal courses in biomechanics from local universities and has always maintained a data-driven approach to his academics. “We use all sports equipment and keep data on our players in our academy – including sleep patterns and workload. When he collapsed, I realized he needed to change his movement to increase his speed and make the ball swing. “Earlier, he was not able to swing the ball,” Varinder said. It is not easy to change your bowling game at the age of 22, especially when time is running out to reach the top level. The best thing about Gurnor, according to Farinder, is that he “submits to his coaches.” “He said he was ready to do anything as long as it opened doors to a higher level of cricket,” recalls Varinder. Then he added: “Even now, no matter what reactions he gets Ashish Nehra In Gujarat Titans and BCCI coaches, he was following it blindly. He did not get any caps for the Titans but was unaffected as communication was clear from Nehra and the selectors. Nehra asked him to strengthen his bowling muscles and we did that. Back to the transformation process now. “He loved fried food even if he worked hard to burn it off. But he decided to give it up. We put him on a diet, increased his intake of protein from natural sources. Then we had him throw more forward along with changing his wrist position to make the ball swing. His head used to fall forward before the delivery. We straightened him out. “That was three months of hard training before the domestic season. “He started bowling 145kmph in another year,” the coach said proudly after watching his winger bowling 148kmph in the international arena. “He can run at speeds of more than 150 kilometers per hour. He probably took things easy on his debut,” Varinder joked. The selection committee and team management have high hopes from Gornor. It was a project that was handled with care. It’s time to ease him into the big league.
