In the Royal Challengers’ dressing room, they call Praveen Kumar the street-smart swing master. But ask the pacer about his skills and he gives a simple explanation. Pointing his index finger to his temple he says with a big smile, “It is all here.”

The day before the national selection committee meets to pick the ODI squad for the home series against Australia also happens to be the eve of Royal Challengers’ Super 8 game against Victoria but there are no signs of anxiety on the face of the goofy pacer.

He doesn’t indulge in false bravado that is generally associated with pre-match talk nor blows his own trumpet as many do before selection day; instead Praveen speaks about the new skills that he aspires to inculcate. “I’m learning to bowl dot balls in final overs as it is very important in crunch games,” he says. Praveen goes on to add how Venkatesh Prasad, India’s bowling coach and also the man in-charge at Royal Challengers, has been helping him.

“Venky bhai says, you can’t be Imran or Akram in one day. He is right, one needs to work hard everyday to master the swing. Every day I try to learn something new. People say that I am fooling around as I always have a smile on my face. But I am very serious about my cricket,” he explains.

Plan in hand

Praveen says that for a bowler like him, it is very important to have a plan all the time, especially in T20. “You know batsman will go after you, so one has to be ready all the time. Take the pace of the ball and try something different,” he says.

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