Dubai: A key hand who worked behind the scenes with New Zealand to help them beat Rohit and Co in India in 2024 was their spin bowling coach Rangana Herath. The Sri Lankan had finished his Test career with 433 wickets in 93 matches but he had never managed to guide his team to a Test series win in India.
In an interview, he spoke to HT about that and the bunch of left-arm spinners who will be on show in the upcoming India-New Zealand Champions Trophy tie. Excerpts…
Is a lot of your coaching technical or tactical?
So basically, when the players are playing for their country, that means, to be honest, you don’t have to work much on technical things. It’s more of a discussion as well as tactical things.
How confident are you of your three spinners Mitch Santner, Michael Bracewell and Glenn Philips being able to exploit conditions in Dubai?
They have been doing well. We played almost five games – the triangular series as well as two other games in Champions Trophy in Pakistan. This one is going to be a new game. We need to start from zero. With that confidence as well as their performance, I am sure they will give their best for this game as well.
Indian batters predominantly play straight. If you are not using the sweeps and the reverse sweep, does it make it easier for the spinner?
Actually, it’s about how you see your strength because batters have their own strength. So, we also have our own strength as well as our own plans. It doesn’t mean that if someone doesn’t play straight that they can’t score runs. There are many ways to score runs. In that case, we need to find out what are the best options at that particular time, the demands of the situation. So, we need to apply those things. It can be field settings; it can be pace variation. You need to adjust and find out the condition for that particular situation.
You have been one of the finest left arm spinners. There will probably be three on show here. Ravindra Jadeja, Axar Patel and Santner…
Jadeja and Axar, they are like more of tall guys. They get bounce as well. They always tend to bowl like back of a length and more of a wicket-to-wicket, like straight. So, that’s why they have always been successful with that strength, actually. Santner, I think he is a kind of a guy that has an understanding about his role and works with a very simple plan. What I am most impressed with him is his change of pace. So, those are the things that we need to consider when it comes to, like a crunch situation to get the best out of the players.
Ajaz Patel told us after the Test series that you helped the spinners a lot with field settings…
Yeah, it’s all about when you find that right angle. It’s going to be, as I said earlier, more tactical as well. You need to find the right angles. That’s when you can create more pressure on the batters.
How happy are you that finger spinners have sort of held their own in the white ball game?
Of course, I’m pretty happy with it. With the new rules for example, in overs 11 to 40, you can keep out only four fielders. But still, their mindset is to take a wicket, kind of an aggressive mindset. It helps.
You would have noticed that in the middle overs in Dubai, Indian spinners have contained runs but not taken many wickets. Is it because of the nature of the wicket?
Whatever the surface you have, you still need to think about getting wickets because if you don’t take a wicket, then the score can be bigger. We need to think about how we can get them out.
How much knowledge did you acquire about spin bowling from Muralitharan?
With knowledge, you know, every single day you’re in a learning curve. We’re always learning, gaining some experience. That’s when you can do things without doubts. As a spinner, when you do things, it’s going to be a kind of a practical decision. There can be good outcomes or bad. If you go for runs, you need to forget about that and come back strongly for the next ball. So, that’s the learning and the experience from my playing career.
You would have become very popular in New Zealand after the clean sweep against India in the Test series?
You know, being a Sri Lankan, we never won a Test match in India. So, this was the best opportunity I had and it was a very big achievement.