Learning curve

RP Singh emerges sweating out of the gym at the National Cricket Academy in Bangalore. He is in a hurry to get back to his room. Fitness and adequate rest are his prime focus these days.

"No questions on my history or on the controversies in Sydney, please," he says as he sits down for a chat. "You are not going to ask where I was born, how I moved to Lucknow to play cricket in a hostel, right?" You can sense he reckons, rightly, that he is no longer an unknown commodity.

RP, who missed the CB Series due to a hamstring injury he picked up during the last Test in Adelaide in the recently concluded series against Australia, can't wait to get back into the Indian team. He is confident he will be back in the action against South Africa in March.

"I am 80 to 90% fit physically and have been working with Paul Chapman [the strengthening and conditioning coach of the National Cricket Academy]. Thankfully, since it was just a level one hamstring tear, I was lucky," he says. "I will start bowling from Monday [February 18]."

RP starred with the ball in Australia, picking up 13 wickets before he picked that injury after bowling just four overs in Adelaide. He went into that series having performed well in England, and spoke about the difference between bowling in the two countries.

"I tried more variations in Australia. In particular, I tried to get the inswing going to the left-hand batsmen [Australia had more left-hand batsmen than England]. I can generally get the outswinger going to the left-hand batsmen, and I worked hard during this tour to mix things up. I changed my seam position and had a slight change in the wrist action. I also tried to bowl more bouncers and yorkers."

He believes that playing a full series in England, the first time he played three Tests in a row, helped his bowling. "My control, pace and accuracy improved." His confidence had soared too, considering it was his first sustained run in the side after having missed ten Tests after his debut series, against Pakistan in 2006.

In Australia, he started off slowly, taking just two wickets in the first Test, in Melbourne, before he was forced to don the role of a strike bowler after Zaheer Khan dropped out injured. Inspired by the emergency, RP turned in creditable performances in Sydney, where he swung out the top order, and Perth, where he scythed through the lower order.

"Since we didn't have any practice game, it was only by the second Test that I was really ready," he says. "I think I did a good job and took some crucial wickets. Zaheer bhai was not there and I am happy about the way I took up the responsibility."

On tour, he worked extensively with the bowing coach, Venkatesh Prasad, firming up plans for various batsmen. "I know Prasad for the last five years and he is like a friend. He worked on my follow-through - at times he felt I was not completing it. That helped me in increasing the pace. We tried to develop a slower ball - he had a great slower one - but I am not still confident to use it consistently in a match scenario."

RP also revealed how Prasad, Anil Kumble and the bowlers would sit for a couple of hours before a game and discuss their plans against the batsmen. What was the single most important thing that he picked up during those sessions?

"I learned how to set up the batsmen better and to have the patience to prolong that set-up time. During the practice game before the Test series, I had a chat with Prasad and Anil bhai on how to postpone the thoughts [of slipping in the change delivery]. I have learned to give more time to set up the batsmen. That was the key turning point for me on this tour. Previously I would bowl an inswinger on the third or fourth ball. I learned to do it in the third over, and it was really more effective."

He gives an example to illustrate. He was successful against Michael Hussey, who he prised out four times during the series. "I had a good plan against Hussey," he warms up. "I would just keep bowling outswingers before slipping in the one that comes in. At times he played for the inswinger when it wasn't or would play for the other one when the ball would come in." Singh got Hussey caught behind the wicket three times and once trapped in front.

India has two captains, Kumble for Tests and Mahendra Singh Dhoni in ODIs, and RP dwelt on the difference in their approaches. "Kumble is a bowler and he knows what to do when. He would ask me what I am going to do next, change the field, and work on the set up of the batsmen. Sometimes in ODIs, since Dhoni is behind the wicket, you don't get to communicate that often.

"But then, in ODIs the nature of the format means you don't change your plans too much. There are generally just two spells to be bowled. So under Dhoni, you execute what you have already decided off the field and when you change, he would come running to you and discuss. But both are very friendly and that helps."

The tour of Australia was marred during the Sydney Test by the poor umpiring and the racism allegation against Harbhajan Singh. RP credits Kumble's captaincy during those "tough times".

"Kumble handled it really well. We had taken a stand in a team meeting and we just followed it. The communication between the team-mates was very strong and there was no confusion. I didn't read any papers, and not many people in the team read newspapers. We took our minds off it by going to Bondi beach - played volleyball and toured a few places. We came back and just focused on cricket and our plans for the next Test."

India's greenhorn pace attack has been coming in for praise from all quarters of late. Ask RP if it is one of the best in the world, and he says, "We have a very good bunch of medium-pacers who can bowl 140kph-plus and get it to swing. And we - Sreesanth, Zaheer, Irfan and me - can swing it both ways. Of course, there are still lots of areas for improvement for us - we need to get more consistent and more accurate - but we are developing well. On this tour all the bowlers did very well in maintaining the pressure as a group and that was the real good thing about the attack. Ishant Sharma has come on really nicely."

RP is all praise for how well Ishant has quickly fit into the team. "The more you play the more you develop, and he has done exactly that. I am not surprised at how well he has grown. The atmosphere within the team was great and Prasad and Anil would encourage him to open up and contribute during the strategy talks of the bowlers. He is very focused, and the thing that separates you at this level is how confident you are of your skills and handle the pressure. He followed the plan, bowled very well, maintained the pressure and went on to trouble Ricky Ponting a lot."

RP rates India's chances in the CB Series. "I think India will go on to win the tournament. They can. Why not?" Why not, indeed. This is a confident Indian team and RP is a prime embodiment of that trait. This young man, son of a telephone operator at the Indian Technical Institute, born in a village in Barabanki district, 30km east of Lucknow, who grew up in the town of Rae Bareilly before moving to the famed cricket hostels of Lucknow, has arrived.