At a time when fast bowlers in India are being wrapped in cotton wool, Gurnoor Brar appears to be cut from a different cloth.
The tall Punjab and North Zone pacer , who has been fast-tracked into the India ODI and Test set-up, is neither averse to operating for long periods on unhelpful wickets nor holds himself back from bowling at high pace. “If we go into the game thinking ‘there is nothing in the surface,’ we are already behind. I try to make the batsman feel I’m always in the game. Gurnoor bowled nearly a fourth of North Zone’s overs, dismissed four of the top-six, and routinely beat batters for pace. “But there are advantages and disadvantages. If we don’t stick to the right lines and length, runs can flow. “From the beginning, I have always believed in training my body to high loads. No matter how much I bowl, it should not matter.
That’s the motive I go into every game with — take the wicket out of the equation,” the 26-year-old added.
South Zone weathered a blistering early morning bowling effort from India pacer Gurnoor Brar (four for 70) to finish day two of the Duleep Trophy semifinal 90 runs in the green at the BCCI Centre of Excellence here on Monday. ✍️ @sudunarayan https://t.co/bRwq2JxQOX “It is very important to have a good mindset,” Gurnoor told reporters at the BCCI Centre of Excellence here, where he took four wickets for 88 runs against South Zone in the Duleep Trophy semifinal on a largely sedate pitch. “Pace is very important for me,” he said. “There is a need for breaks, obviously. [But] I have an old fast bowler’s mindset: the more you bowl, the stronger you become.”