Kolkata, April 18 (FN Agency) West Indies mystery spinner Sunil Narine is set to play his 150th game for Kolkata Knight Riders on Monday, completing ten years with the franchise. Describing it as a long journey, the office says he wants to finish his IPL playing career with the franchise, and then return to the side as bowling coach. “It’s a long journey, 150 games and continuing. My aspirations are to finish the IPL in KKR colours and hopefully after my playing career, I can join the team as a bowling coach because I have been doing so much of bowling and learning about the action in terms of what helps and what doesn’t. “I think I want to give back and hopefully, the door is open and continue to be back in the Purple and Gold,” Narine told kkr.in in an interview. “I have loved my stay at KKR. So hopefully I start and finish here. I think it’s a great achievement. You don’t see many overseas players stay with one franchise,” said the 33-year-old Trinidadian. When asked about the different captains he has played under at KKR, he said because of his attacking nature, all the skippers have generally given him the field he asked for. Narine said he has enjoyed a good relationship with all the captains. “When we go on the field, I ask them what they need of me and then I try to produce whatever is possible.”
Narine said rather than. Bowling to a preset plan, he improvises based on the match situation. “Based on the situation, if our team is going for runs, I just try to keep it as tight as possible. If we are doing good, I try to pick up wickets. I bowl based on whatever is front of me, so I don’t really plan too much before the game,” Narine said. The bowling allrounder, who made his IPL debut in 2012, said he has practised the most in the last two-three years to stay relevant. “I think you can never be too comfortable, you do have to continue practicing as much as you can because if you don’t, it’s easy to say that I am good and pack up your boots and start watching cricket. It was all on me to keep training and working on my game to try to stay relevant to the game and try to get back where I was when I started,” he said. “I have been doing a lot more bowling than I used to do in the past when I just started. I think it’s about learning and knowing what you have to do and be confident when the game starts.” “ It was my own idea hiding the ball but I worked very closely with Carl Crowe and the first time he saw it, he said it was something we had to try to reach.
It gives me a slight upper hand because batters can only see the ball at the point-of-delivery. He was more keen to getting it started even sooner but it all worked out the way it was supposed to work out,” Narine said. When asked what does he tell himself after getting hit for a six, he said, “It’s basically if I bowl a bad ball and get hit for a six, obviously i have to bowl a better ball. If I bowl a good ball and the batter hits it for a six, I don’t try to read too much into it. I try to bowl maybe the same ball because batters don’t quite the same shot consistently, they try something else. I try to keep it as simple as possible. Since 2012, Narine has troubled all batsmen, including the great Sachin Tendulkar, and the little master once even requested the broadcasters during the Champions League T20 to give him footage of the offie bowling from both angles. Recalling the happening, Narine said, “ It gives you a good feeling knowing that one of the greatest batters to ever play the game wants to focus on you but it shows that he is dedicated and he wants to be on the top of his game and doesn’t want to be surprised when the game comes. I think for any player or youngster coming up, always strive to be the best and work on the fine details. Narine said in all these years of IPL, Virender Sehwag has played him the best. he said, “I always found it tough because he was a guy who always kept the game going no matter what situation the team was in, he kept batting the way he did.”
Asked to pick his best batting moment in the IPL, Narine said, “Definitely when I scored the fastest fifty. Opening the batting was new and guys were bowling to their plans and weren’t taking me as seriously as now so I think I was enjoying it, just having success and going out there being able to do that in the IPL, which is perhaps the toughest T20 franchise league in the world, it was a great batting experience.” “I wouldn’t say I add shots to my repertoire. I think just trying to get better, being more aware of where the bowlers were going to bowl and focusing on continuing to do what I have been doing. Is going to develop me as a batter,” Narine said. The cricketer said every time he plays, his late father is the first person who comes to his mind. “My father was a big part of my life in cricket. If it wasn’t for him, I don’t think I would have played cricket. Every time I take the field, he’s the first person who comes to mind,” he said. Narine said, “Once in primary school, on Mondays and Fridays, we played football. He used to play cricket and I joined him to play after school. Even in the garage, he bowled and he asked me to take my time but when you hit the ball hard, you don’t listen much. He had books of Sunil Gavaskar and wanted me to be a technically correct batter. He always believed in me as a batter and when he passed away, I made a conscious effort to focus on batting a little more and see what the outcome could be.