'You can't deal in the same way with Kohli, Rohit as you did with...' - Paras Mhambrey reveals how coaching staff built good relationships

Former India bowling coach Paras Mhambrey has opened up about how the coaching staff dealt with the senior members of the team and how they built good relationships with them during the beginning of their tenure.

Paras Mhambrey was India's bowling coach during Rahul Dravid's tenure as India's head coach. With Dravid's tenure ending at the conclusion of the T20 World Cup 2024, Mhambrey's tenure also came to an end, along with batting coach Vikram Rathour and fielding coach T Dilip.

But Mhambrey has been working with the BCCI since 2015. He is one of the most trusted persons for Rahul Dravid. Mhambrey worked in various BCCI programs at the National Cricket Academy (NCA), which helped him in knowing about youngsters more. As a result, Dravid also suggested his name for the role of India's bowling coach.

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Paras Mhambrey reveals how the coaching staff built good relationships with the players

During an interview with The Times of India, Paras Mhambrey revealed how they dealt with different players during the start of their tenure. He admitted that the senior players of the teams need to be dealt with differently as compared to the younger ones.

"It was different. We took time to build a relationship with senior players. You can't be dealing in the same way with the likes of (Mohammed) Shami, (Ravichandran) Ashwin, Virat (Kohli) or Rohit (Sharma) as you did with the players coming through BCCI programmes. Here the most important thing was conversations," Mhambrey stated.

"Building relationships is crucial" - Paras Mhambrey

The former India bowling coach stressed upon the importance of building good relationships with the players. He revealed how they spoke to senior players like Ishant Sharma and Bhuvneshwar Kumar about their plan going forward.

"Building relationships is crucial. That's why we got to a place when we could have an honest conversation with Ishant Sharma in South Africa and then the likes of Bhuvneshwar Kumar to tell them the vision we had for the team going forward. Even with the likes of (Mohammed) Siraj, who has come through our 'A' programme, we were having different conversations and that was result-oriented," Mhambrey said.

When asked if he is leaving an aging bowling attack with the likes of Mohammed Shami and R Ashwin moving towards the end of their careers. Mhambrey said that conversations need to be done with the senior players about the vision for the future.

"It's important to have those discussions with Shami and Ashwin about their future plans and then lay out a plan. When we decided to invest in youth, we made sure they were not alone in the park shouldering all responsibilities. Be it Arshdeep or Avesh, we made sure they were always bowling alongside senior bowlers," Mhambrey added.

The coaching staff under Rahul Dravid was quite successful for Team India. In the past one year, India reached three ICC championship finals, in which India claimed one trophy, which was the T20 World Cup 2024. The remaining two finals were the WTC final and the ODI World Cup final in 2023 which India lost to Australia.