DHARAMSHALA: Arshdeep Singh didn’t look like his usual self during practice here on Saturday afternoon. On the eve of a nearly make-or-break match against table-toppers Royal Challengers Bengaluru, he eschewed the customary banter with teammates for intense conversations with Punjab Kings head coach Ricky Ponting. For a man who has built his reputation on lighting up a dressing room and a warrior-like temperament on the field in the toughest of situations, India’s premier left-arm seamer has been visibly subdued in the IPL. Arshdeep scaled the zenith of success with back-to-back triumphant World Cup campaigns in the first week of March. In two months’ time, he finds himself at rock bottom in the foothills of the daunting Dhauladhar range here. Arshdeep’s unusually low season is a major reason why Punjab Kings have inexplicably plunged from the peak they attained halfway through the tournament. Be it the controversies erupting from his social media presence or bowling on flattest of pitches, one has been wandering what must be ailing Arshdeep. Well, the Punjab Kings management understandably also went hunting for answers. And it has emerged that he was not at his optimum best physically during the tournament. “We’ve been working together a little bit and looking at his body if there’s any restrictions in his body that might be a reason for some of his performances being up and down. We think we’ve hit on a bit of a winner there. He’s been feeling a lot better in the last couple of weeks, physically,” Andrew Leipus, Punjab Kings’ head of sports science, responded to a query from TOI here. Leipus’ revelation kind of answers why Arshdeep’s deliveries appeared to lack in zip. He has struggled to nail the yorkers or the bouncers in crunch situations like he used to over the last couple of years. Even as he was quietly grappling with his physical issues, the off-field controversies seem to be weighing him down. Leipus didn’t dismiss the chatter going around but also insisted that Arshdeep is holding his own well in the dressing room. “I know there’s been a bit of chatter behind the scenes of various things going on — vlogging and what not. In terms of his behaviour and attitude, Arsh is pretty much a flat line. He’s not up or down. He gives his best out there. He’s a very loud person in the dressing room. That hasn’t changed. He’s very calm,” Leipus claimed. “One of the best things the ICC ever did was take phones away. When you’re in that team environment, it’s not an issue. It’s outside that when it becomes an issue. I’ve heard rumours. I think potentially it is something that needs to be addressed,” he added. If at all the suggestions of getting distracted off the field are true, Arshdeep doesn’t have to look beyond the opposition dugout on Sunday afternoon to remotivate himself. There are two 37-year-olds in Virat Kohli and Bhuvneshwar Kumar, with a bagful of laurels against their names over careers that have run into the second decade, still reinventing their game and evolving with the madding pace of contemporary cricket. Leipus asserted that captain Shreyas Iyer and Arshdeep have shown exemplary calmness as leaders of this unit during this rough phase. It’s for them to turn it around on the field on Sunday.
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