The Hindu : Sport / Cricket : We are trying to improve: Kirsten

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We are trying to improve: Kirsten

Karachi: Kevin Pietersen’s shadow stretched all the way to Karachi as his switch hit sneaked into the Indian team’s practice session.

Late on Monday evening, coach Gary Kirsten was encouraging Yusuf Pathan and others to fine-tune their reverse sweep besides also attempting the switch hit.

And on Tuesday morning, Kirsten clarified that the shot was something that had been attempted even before during training. “Well, we were doing this even before this thing (Pietersen) came up. We are trying things all the time and that’s the way cricket is going.

“We are just trying to improve their game by 5 to 10 per cent and that can make all the difference. It is not something that Yusuf might do in the next game that is for sure. It’s some of the new things that we are trying to do, not just with him but with all the players,” Kirsten said.

Rotation policy

Kirsten spoke about the need for a rotation policy in the light of injuries to bowlers. “We got to be careful with the bowlers, some of these guys have played a lot of cricket and we need to make sure that they are physically fresh,” Kirsten said.

Elaborating on the rotation scheme, he said: “The system needs to create that (sense of security) and it is unfair to expect that the player himself asks to be rested because he is also worried that if his replacement does well then he will lose his place.

“So we need a rotation system in which if we rest a bowler, and his replacement does well, he still gets his place back.” — Principal Correspondent

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