I'm Looking To Play For India And That's What Keeps Me Going: Varun Aaron

Varun Aaron burst onto the scene when Indian cricket was in dire need of some good pacers to replace the retiring Zaheer Khan. Aaron looked like the perfect candidate to take the Indian cricket forward. The right-arm pacer from Jharkhand grabbed the eyeballs when he hit 153 kph during the 2010-11 Vijay Hazare Trophy final against Gujarat. The early promise, however, was not the precursor of the things that were to follow.

Aaron was fast-tracked into the Indian team after his impressive performance in domestic cricket. He made his ODI debut in October 2011 against England. A Test debut followed a month later against West Indies. However, his downfall was as quick as his rapid rise as his inconsistent bowling and injury soon saw him falling down the pecking order.

Despite making his international debut seven years ago, he has played only 9 Tests and as many ODIs till date with his last India appearance coming in November 2015. He, however, kept himself in the reckoning by playing in the Indian Premier League.
From 2014 to 2016, he was a regular feature in the Royal Challengers Bangalore squad and was one of the fastest bowlers in the league. Last year, he impressed for Kings XI Punjab. But things went haywire this year as he went unsold at the 2018 IPL players auction.

But he was not bogged down by the setbacks and left for County cricket to prove his worth. The speedster joined Leicestershire and has been doing well. He played a pivotal role in taking Leicestershire to victory over Glamorgan in a County Championship Division Two match. Aaron took 6 wickets for 131 runs. In the three matches he has played so far, Aaron has taken 9 wickets at an average of 39.88.

In a recent interview, he said that the desire of donning the Indian jersey again keeps him motivated.

“I am looking to play for India in near future and that’s what keeps me going, that’s what gives me the motivation every day in the morning to wake up and to put in those yards. I am sure it will come in my way,” Aaron told IndiaTV.

Aaron credited the hard work he has put in before going to England as the reason behind his success in County.

“The reason behind my success in County cricket definitely would be because of the hard work I’ve put in before coming here with my coach SS Rao and Subroto Banerjee. I also worked with a great trainer and a really good physio Sudarshan, who used to work with the Indian team and Ranga, who is with Karnataka.

“I had a really good camp of 20-25 days with these guys working on things I would need to do here. After getting here, assessing the conditions and changing my game accordingly like bowling more inswingers because it’s just the way the conditions are here and the batsmen play here… these are reasons for me doing well so far,” he said.

He also opened up on bowling in the English conditions.

“The conditions here are a lot different to India, the pace, the bounce, the overhead conditions. So, I’ve been bowling a lot fuller than I would be doing in India,” he opined.