Dented by untimely injuries, Varun Aaron vows to bring fear factor to the fore, yet again
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Varun Aaron was never set out to be just one among the many. He was a contradiction, the very contradiction of the Indian fast bowling race where having the ability to move the ball was the ultimate gold standard and keeping it for long was the parameter of how many years would you play for India.
Of course, India were fascinated by Brett Lee’s fearsome pace and Shoaib Akhtar’s dazzling audacity of doing everything with the ball that would put the fear of god into the opposition mindset. Akthar’s liveliest, a bounding run of gathering energy with the delivery stride exploding at all angles, eyes afire, was the ultimate fantasy. Just that, they didn’t want on the other side, they needed one of their own who could fire those 150 kmph bullets at a regular interval - no compromise. Just sheer pace.
Then Varun Aaron happens to Indian cricket. You see, the fantasy is coming true, suddenly India is having one of their own.
The regular breach of 153kph barrier in the finals of 2010-11 Vijay Hazare Trophy was just too good for the national selectors to keep their eyes away and a few months later he was donning India colours against England in Mumbai. Those who saw him bowl and pick the last three wickets to wrap up a comfortable ODI win for the hosts, found nothing but a genuine burst of happiness every time Aaron takes a wicket. In the cruel world of cricket, nobody would’ve probably expected that would fritter away just like that.
From the public eye, Aaron did move away. The frustrated Indians looked with the feeling that there is no end to the misery. They would never have their Andrew Flintoff nor their Jason Gillespie. However, inside the closed door, Aaron just didn’t.
He might’ve failed to make a solid impact in the limited opportunities that he got with India, but he kept on trying. Trying to stay relevant in the unforgivable grind and never ever tried to trade his measured pace, not even for the sake of his own fitness.
“I was brought up as a cricketer at the MRF pace foundation, that’s a place where a lot of discipline is imbibed into you, a lot of values that you need as a fast bowler that you gain at the pace foundation. Growing up watching Dennis Lillee, just listening to him and being mentored by him was a dream come true. That’s what a lot of people would ask for and never get but I was very lucky to get that. I have always been very disciplined, I have worked very hard and my fitness standards have always been the best. I can look in the mirror and say that I have always been really really fit,” Aaron told SportsCafe in an exclusive interview.
Are you Surprised after reading what Aaron just said? Well, you have all the rights to be because counting the number of times he had been injured is a story worth having a discussion. The Jharkhand pacer suffered two stress fractures on the back soon after his Ranji Trophy debut in 2008-09, and just when he made his debut for India, another back injury kept him out of India's tour to Australia in 2011-12. The same injury came out to haunt him once again and had him to stay at his home for 15 months.
Just when he was regaining the momentum, a leg injury in 2014 almost ended his Test career. It was quite an eventful journey with the occupational hazard derailing his way, more often than not. All that came to mind straight away when he said “his fitness standards have always been the best” but soon the pacer went on to give a good enough justification.
“Most of my injuries have been bony injuries,” he added. “They have been fractures on which you really don’t have any control over. If you take my Under-15 days into count too, in fourteen years, I have had only one muscle injury. You cannot control a fracture but my body has matured and obviously, I have also figured ways how to not load my body too much.
If you take my Under-15 days into count too, in fourteen years, I have had only one muscle injury.
Varun Aaron
“I am more aware of my actions now and I have changed a few things in my training. Before I used to train very hard but I have just pulled it back a little bit which is really helping me and not overdoing it is really important as a fast bowler. But the major change I had to do was with my mindset, the way I look at the game and the way I look at things now.”
Looking at him bowl the way he did in the last IPL for Rajasthan Royals, it was very hard to presume that he had any lethargy with him and if anything, the hard work that he had put in during the offseason was on the show. He was bowling as good as he has ever done and the game against Kolkata Knight Riders took people on a nostalgic ride to the past. The pacer won the man of the match award after taking two wickets for 20 runs, but the highlight reel would be the "banana inswinger" to dismiss Shubman Gill. Primarily an outswing bowler, bowling the inswinging delivery just didn’t happen because his wrists were coiling in the direction, it was the effort that went behind it talked.
“If you go back the funny thing is that people are noticing it now because it happened in the IPL. If you go back two years before the 2018 IPL auction we were playing Mushtaq Ali T20s at Eden Gardens too. Even I got Manan Vohra bowled in the exact same way in the Punjab-Jharkhand game two years ago. I mean, this is a delivery, which I’ve been bowling for the past couple of years. It is exactly the same ball, same end and even the same ground.”
In a country, which has never been kind to any pacers who leak runs in an ODI or T20 game, Aaron had to put in insane levels of preparation into his game and to make his case stronger, he found himself in Leicester for part of the 2018 county season. That happened on the back of his non-selection in any of the IPL teams despite having a decent season with Kings XI Punjab in the previous year. That hurt him, but it eased out when his six-wicket haul helped Leicestershire to secure their first win against Glamorgan in 22 Championship games. It was huge for the county and the feeling of helping the team achieve the feat was equally remarkable for Aaron as well.
“When I went to England last year, it was obviously on the back of not getting into IPL. It was a bit surprising because I had a good year with Punjab. In six games, I had seven wickets and an economy of just eight so I was really looking forward to playing IPL last year. But that didn’t happen to see which I decided to go to play County. It wasn't working because I was always a part of the IPL and you know for an Indian cricketer, IPL is more important. So last year just happened, I immediately got a county team Leicestershire.
“The fact that you are the only overseas cricketer for them, you have to perform day in and day out and they depend on you to get wickets is an added responsibility. In my second game, I got six wickets and Leicester won their first game in 22 Championship games. It was a big thing for them and I was so glad that I could contribute to that. For a club, who hadn’t been winning for 22 games, you pick the wickets and win the game does a lot of good to your confidence.”
That was on the show this year and the Jharkhand pacer bowled with panache like nothing has been lost. He is still 29 and bowling as good as he has ever been. But most importantly, he has given rise to a hope he has it in him, who knows, to add more caps to his promising yet injury-ridden India career.
“I’m still relevant in Indian cricket and I’m pushing to play for the country,” Aaron concludes, letting you think the isn't "pace evolution", which is the buzz word in the last few years, real.
