PERTH: Impressed with the guile in spin and firepower in pace department, India's bowling coach Bharat Arun today said rookie Barinder Sran, being a left-armer, gives the team "added advantage", and indicated the chances of including him in the upcoming opening ODI against Australia.
India relied on half centuries from Rohit Sharma, Manish Pandey and a disciplined bowling effort to record a 64-run win over a second string Western Australia XI in the warm-up one-day cricket match here.
Arun seemed a satisfied man with the way the match panned out.
Asked about the 23-year-old Sran, Arun said, "He is a bowler with a lot of potential. He has been pretty impressive in the two games that he has played. So that's good and being a left-armer he gives us the added advantage. And we have somebody whom we can groom to become a good bowler in the future for us."
"If he has got the ability then why not. It is a bilateral series and we have to try out the potential bowlers that we have. He has been impressive so far," he said when asked about the possibility of playing Sran in the opening fixture.
Talking about the team's bowling, he said, "Spin has been India's forte and of late we have had pretty good fast bowlers. We have 3-4 guys who can clock 140 plus but yes Ashwin is probably the No.1 spin bowler in the world today and Jadeja has also played a lot in Australia and Axar is also doing well in the domestic circuit so it looks very healthy, so wait and watch."
Pacer Mohammed Shami was today ruled out of the limited-overs cricket series against Australia due to a hamstring injury.
"I think it's part of the game. Something which is unforeseen, something which is uncontrollable. We will definitely miss him but we will have to look ahead with what we have."
On Ishant Sharma not being used in the two warm-up games, Arun said, "He is perfectly all right. Ishant is a very experienced bowler and if you have noticed before the game he
was bowling on the ground. He has been bowling 25-30 balls on the ground, so I guess we would like to try other boys and with Shami being injured, it becomes all the more important for us to check who we are going to play in the next game. From that point of view it's important that we play the rest."
Asked what could be the team combination in the series, he said it will be a tough task to pick the playing XI.
"It (the tour game) has given us a fair idea. We need to look at it as exchange of ideas. What's good with this team is that everybody here is ready to play and it's going to be a tough task to choose the XI. So that way it has been pretty healthy."
Arun said the Perth track has an element of bounce.
"Definitely there is an element of bounce which is there. We are pretty much prepared for that. Also it can be a huge advantage to our bowlers and we are up for the challenge."
Asked if there was any change in the wicket between the World Cup and now, Arun said, "Not really, it's more or less been the same. But it depends, each wicket behaves differently. If you look at the match that Australia played against New Zealand, it was a totally different wicket from the perception of a Perth track. I guess we don't read too much into the wicket, take it as it comes and move on."
Elaborating he said, "The idea of having played the practice games on the same ground also gives us that advantage. We have played a lot of cricket in Australia recently but after coming back, spending a lot of time in the sub-continent, straight away getting used to the ground on which we are slated to play is going to be an advantage."