The other thing Shreyas Iyer did was tell Arya, ‘Don’t worry, you will play all 14 matches’ – which made the 24-year-old feel immediately confident and comfortable. And in the next game, he blasted 103 off 42 against Chennai Super Kings, in an innings where none of the other top six got into double figures.
Ricky Ponting, the Punjab coach, has also been instrumental in instilling that calm and confidence in Arya. “He never tells me anything bad when I get out,” Arya said. “His communication is always positive. He doesn’t even tell me that, ‘You could have done it this way’. He says, ‘If you get the next ball here, hit it out of the ground.’ So that gave me a lot of confidence.”
Arya’s ‘see ball, hit ball’ philosophy
Confidence is anyway a key trait of Arya’s game, but just how much was encapsulated in one ball. Having got bowled off a Jofra Archer pearler, Arya was again facing the first ball against CSK’s Khaleel Ahmed. He got a short and wide one outside off, which was fiercely cut over point for six. It didn’t matter that he was coming off a first-ball dismissal. This ball was there to be hit, so Arya hit it.
“My philosophy is ‘see the ball, hit the ball’,” Arya said, harking back to the Archer dismissal. “Like when I see Shreyas bhaiya’s batting… I had got out first ball to Jofra, and the second ball he hit a four over the covers.
“It’s not a big deal to be out on zero, it’s part of the game. I’ll make zeros also, I’ll make hundreds also. So I didn’t think too much about it.” After his scintillating century too, Arya had said of his first-ball six, “I had thought that if the ball is in my slot, I’ll go for my shots. I’ll back myself, I won’t look for singles. Even if wickets are falling, I’ll still back myself. I have the confidence that I can clear the boundary.”
The hand of coach Sanjay Bharadwaj
Arya has been coached by Sanjay Bharadwaj, who was also Gautam Gambhir’s childhood coach. Arya credits Bharadwaj with shaping his early years, and still calls him regularly, particularly before and after a game.
“The biggest role for me has been Sanjay sir. I’m with him since I’ve been young. He tells me a lot about the mental side of the game and what to do,” Arya said. “He had told me to concentrate on the cut and pull, because in the IPL obviously it’s not as if I’ll get a lot of easy balls to hit. Most bowlers will hit the hard length.”
As a youngster, Arya would watch from behind the nets as Gambhir went about his routines. It was Bharadwaj who had encouraged all his young wards to watch how an established star trained and went about his routines. And when Arya finally made it to a Ranji camp, he had a surprise waiting for him. “The first time I spoke to Gautambhaiya, I had gone for my first Ranji camp and was batting in the nets. He called me near him and he gave me a whole new kit bag, the one he used to play with.”
The century and the MS Dhoni moment that wasn’t
Arya’s stunning century drew rich praise from all quarters. His ability to continue attacking fearlessly even as wickets were falling at the other end was particularly noteworthy, as was his range of shots and timing. But getting the hundred also meant he had a lot of post-match interactions to attend to. And by the time these were done, the one person in the CSK camp that Arya most wanted to have a chance to talk to had gone.
“I wanted to talk to him (Dhoni) but I couldn’t because I was busy with the interviews and he had left by then,” smiled Arya. If he continues on the blazing path he has charted though, Arya will certainly get plenty more opportunities to pick MS Dhoni’s brains.
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