Arvind ready for KPL with his baffling variations

Bengaluru, August 24: Sreenath Arvind has been one of the go-to bowlers for Royal Challengers Bangalore in the Indian Premier League for the last couple of seasons. More often than not, the left-arm bowler has been able to deliver in crunch situations for RCB.

Belagavi Panthers will expect Arvind to deliver for them too in this edition of the Karnataka Premier League, and he has put in a lot of effort ahead of the imminent challenge.

"Because KPL is a T20 tournament, a lot of work was based on that. You need to work on certain strengths for the tournament - yorkers and slower balls. You have to work on your variations too. Let's hope it all pays off," said Arvind.

Arvind is one of the very few bowlers who is comfortable with bowling both pace and spin. He explained how it work out for him.

"Whenever I have a chance, whenever I get a spinning track, that is when I decide to bowl left-arm spin as well. It happened naturally. A few years back I was trying it out in the nets, and soon it became like a hobby. I kept going on with the spin, and now it's become an extra skill that I can use when needed," he said.

The experience of playing under intense pressure situations and on different type of pitches, Aravind said, will help the players prepare better for the upcoming Ranji season.

"The KPL is T20 cricket and it mostly helps us handle pressure situations. Ranji Trophy is about a day's game, where you need to have patience. These things work simultaneously, so that's why playing the KPL at the beginning of the season help us in the Ranji Trophy as well.

"We'll also play on various kinds of pitches in Bengaluru, Mysuru and Hubbali, and under lights. It's a different scenario than what we'll face in Ranji. But we take it all as good, competitive cricket, and that's how it helps us prepare for the Ranji season," he said.

Of course, Arvind has oodles of experience to bank on and he hoped to pass it on to younger bowlers.

"Every match is a learning experience for them. Whatever I have learnt during the IPL, if I pass that on to these youngsters and do that in the right way, it will help them a lot. Things like, how to go about these KPL matches, what they should do in pressure situations, what good they can do for the team - that's the sort of guidance and insight I will try to pass on to them," he signed off.