‘Hendrick helped me improve’

The last season might rightly be termed as a turning point in Laxmipathy Balaji’s career. The Chennai speedster, from the relative obsc...

The last season might rightly be termed as a turning point in Laxmipathy Balaji’s career. The Chennai speedster, from the relative obscurity of domestic cricket, became a near automatic choice in the Indian cricket team. However, the stardom such a status carries with it hardly changed Balaji. He remains focussed and wants to build on his success.

‘‘I want to become physically and mentally strong before the forthcoming season which will be a very important one for all of us. We are playing a lot of matches in the sub-continent and this camp will help us back to our top fitness,’’ Balaji said here on Tuesday.

During the Australia and Pakistan tours, Balaji along with Irfan Pathan shouldered heavy responsibility of leading Indian attack in alien conditions in the absence of injured Zaheer Khan. ‘‘The last season was very good and we have to recreate the performance of Australian and Pakistani tours in the next season,’’ he said.

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With this aim in mind, he recently consulted former England pace bowler Mike Hendrick, while touring England with his club side Chemplast, to improve his craft. Terming the experience as useful, Balaji said: ‘‘I had six sessions with Hendrick. He helped me improve a lot. Now, I am trying to induce pause in the delivery stride like Srinath and Zaheer Khan and smoothen my run-up that will enable me to keep the batsmen guessing. Also I am concentrating to master what I was doing during the last tour.’’

Earlier, team physio Gregory King said the focus will be on physical conditioning rather than injury prevention or injury treatment.

‘‘A combination of high volume of cricket and deficiency of strength in some areas cause injuries. But in this camp, we will give importance to course stability, speed endurance and cardio-vascular training. There are some general exercises for players while there will be some specific items for pace bowlers,” he said.

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