Arunkumar’s appointment will be like a “home coach” for the USA team

Arunkumar

Saurabh Netravalkar, the India-born national captain of the USA cricket team believes that the appointment of former Karnataka batsman J Arunkumar as head coach will benefit the team to a great extent. 

Speaking exclusively over telephone from San Francisco, the 26-year-old left-arm fast bowler said, “it will be great for us to have Coach Arunkumar at USA cricket with his extensive experience and success in India. We are looking forward to working with him”.

It will be like a “home coach” for the team. 

“We have a mix of players in the USA national team, around 6-7 from Indian origin, few from West Indies origin, few Australian, English, New Zealand, South Africa and few who have grown up playing in the USA. We have had coaches from India in the past, Sunil Joshi, Pravin Amre, Kiran More. So it’s always good to be guided by and to get to learn from these highly experienced coaches”.

The coach has already begun working with the boys from India. 
“Yes, coach Arunkumar and me have been in touch. We have all as a team in fact been doing weekly sessions on video calls to do planning for upcoming season. We are following in-house fitness program, and Coach helps us making goals, we have lot of conversations about how we can be mentally prepared better, following good training habits, thinking of different strategies we can prepare for based on our individual and team game plans”, he added. 

“I personally learn a lot from him in the way he used to train as a cricketer and be hungry to perform always. He has also been a very successful captain for Karnataka and I take guidance from him in leadership aspects as well. Looking forward to work with him”, the captain further added. 

During the current Covid crisis, we have weekly team video sessions, our trainer has given him a fitness program, we are following that and also spending quality time with family at home. Wishing everyone to take care and stay safe”, he concluded.