Skipper MS Dhoni’s constant words helped me immensely: Barinder Sran

At age 18, he discarded the punching bag and picked up the red cherry. Barinder Sran — the 23-year-old fast bowler from Punjab — started late but swung his way into the Indian cricket team within five years. The left-arm pacer, who recently impressed in Zimbabwe, said skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s constant supervision from behind the wickets had helped him prgress.

Team India have not had saw a genuine left-arm pacer after Zaheer Khan and Ashish Nehra.

Sran — with his clean action (mirror image of Brett Lee) — could be India’s answer to the problem.

“Dhoni taught me how to bowl according to the field. He kept talking from behind and told me how to bowl at which batsman which really helped,” says Sran, who picked up six wickets in two T20Is (including a 4/10) and four wickets in three ODIs.

Though a second string side went to Zimbabwe, they bonded as a unit under the watchful eyes of the experienced Dhoni.

“Initially, my confidence was low. I thought I wasn’t able to perform to my potential. But from the second ODI, the ball started swinging well, I could exploit the conditions which helped me plan better,” he adds.

“Being a young team, there was a lot of unity. We all were together.”