Paras Mhambrey blasts state associations over mismanagement of young India pacers
Published - 21 Jul 2024, 07:28 PM | Updated - 23 Aug 2024, 01:16 AM
Paras Mhambrey, who was recently India's bowling coach till the T20 World Cup, has made a big statement on why India's young crop of bowlers are losing themselves in modern and competitive cricket.
Mhambrey worked closely with Rahul Dravid during his tenure as India's head coach and was crucial to India unearthing several young bowlers. Umran Malik, Kamlesh Nagarkoti, and Shivam Mavi are three prominent names that come to mind.
Unfortunately, all three of them are lost in the wilderness. Malik after his promising IPL 2022 season played a few ODI and T20I matches for India but is now nowhere close to selection. Shivam Mavi and Kamlesh Nagarkoti are other such names. Both were groomed by KKR but did not get to play too many matches when playing for other franchises.
Naagarkoti played his last competitive cricket match in the IPL 2022 season. Shivam Mavi who was picked for 6.40 crores by Gujarat Titans in IPL 2024 missed the season due to injury. Mhambrey feels their careers have been marred by injuries.
Speaking about Umran Malik, Mhambrey said that he needs to play domestic cricket from a different state that has a proper structure and not for Jammu & Kashmir.
"I won't say disappointed, but someone like Umran (Malik). We need to guide him. He needs to play for a state which has proper structure. Unfortunately, he is playing for a state where there is no proper structure. Playing for a state with a proper structure, playing a lot of cricket will definitely help him. We need someone to make that call for him and make sure that he plays for a state where he plays a lot of cricket. He has the potential, a quick guy who can bowl in the mid-140s. consistently, but someone to guide him at this stage and saying, okay, fine, just play cricket and how do we take this, take his game forward," Mhambrey told Sportstar.
Bowlers Have Been Over-Bowled: Paras Mhambrey
He further talked about the young Indian pacers Nagarkoti and Mavi, saying injuries have played a big part in limiting their international careers.
"Others like (Kamlesh) Nagarkoti and (Shivam) Mavi have been lost in all this and maybe overlooked by the associations or over-bowled by the associations. Over-bowled is perhaps the right word, and that's a little concern because a lot of these guys, when they come into the India team, are really burned by their state teams. So we have to be a little smart with them," the 52-year-old added.
Several young Indian pacers were groomed by the Paras during his stint as the bowling coach. However, he could not do much about the likes of Malik, Nagarkoti, and Mavi as all three of them had regular injury concerns. The likes of Avesh Khan, Arshdeep Singh, and Mukesh Kumar made their international debuts with him as the bowling coach of India.
All of them made notable performances as well. The likes of Jasperit Bumrah, Mohammed Shami, and Mohammed Siraj made themselves into the best bowling trio under his mentorship.
Gautam Gambhir, the newly-appointed India coach has roped in former South African pacer Morne Morkel as the next bowling coach of India. He had a stint previously as the bowling coach of Pakistan during the ODI World Cup 2023.
