CHENNAI: When Varun Aaron lost two good years of cricket to injury in 2012 and 2013, it was just looking like a familiar scene that cricket world has so often seen. A tearaway quick, whose career seemed forever blighted by injuries. But just eight months after making a comeback in the Ranji Trophy, Aaron now finds himself in India’s tour to England.
Those two years were spent mostly at the National Cricket Academy and the MRF Pace Foundation. He slowly regained the confidence, and as with comeback tales of faster bowlers, he wasn’t exactly productive. It’s usually a make-or-break scenario. But Aaron reckons the time he spent away from action has indeed helped him to understand his body better. “Injuries are always disappointing, and moreover no one can control them. But if you ask me, it gave me the time to analyse my bowling. I sat down with people in MRF and NCA to figure out what is causing me these injuries and what I can do about it. So once I started to bowl in the nets, I made some small adjustments so that my body was in good position when it landed on the crease. And it has certainly helped,” Aaron told TNIE.
Though the return to the international fold has been a mix of ups and downs, the backing of the team management released some pressure off Aaron’s shoulders. It took only three Ranji matches before he was called up for national duty for the tour to New Zealand in early January. It showed that the team management and selectors were keen on investing in a pacer who added a different dimension to the bowling attack. “The support I got from BCCI, the selectors and the players was incredible. I couldn’t have asked for more. The BCCI even took care of the expenses. It made a huge difference because a player needs the backing, especially when he is injured,” Aaron added.
Like the case with many pacers, Aaron had struggled to get the consistency going, but that hasn’t stopped him from getting important breakthroughs. But one thing was evident. The more he bowled, the better he got. In the Indian Premier League he finished with 16 wickets that put him in the top 10 bowlers. “It took me some time to get that rhythm. But I knew it was getting better and I didn’t want to lose focus thinking about that,” he said. In the 20-day space he got after the IPL, Aaron used the MRF camp to prepare himself for the England tour.
With Glenn McGrath overseeing the camp, the 24-year-old bowled using Duke balls to get acclimatised to the English conditions.