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Balaji keen to develop into all-rounder
Young seam bowler Lakshmipathy Balaji has set his eyes on becoming an all-rounder.
- Indo-Asian News Service
- Updated: February 25, 2007 09:06 AM IST
Read Time:2 min
Chennai:
Young seam bowler Lakshmipathy Balaji, who was rated as one of the most popular Indian cricketers during the just concluded tour of Pakistan, has set his eyes on becoming an all-rounder. Balaji, who came in for praise from none other than Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf for his heroic batting in the second match of the one-day series, expressed his desire to concentrate more on his batting and fielding. "The need of the hour now is to concentrate on improving my abilities in all departments of the game like batting besides my bowling," said Balaji. The bowler's two unbeaten timely knocks, including 21 off just 12 balls in the third one-dayer, propelled him to the second spot in the batting averages. Balaji recalled that his mother's ambition that India should defeat Pakistan. "We not only defeated Pakistan in both versions of the game but I was part of both the winning teams," he said. He took six wickets in the five ODIs and 12 in the three Tests. The Tamil Nadu player, who came to prominence due to injuries to Avishkar Salvi, Zaheer Khan and Ashish Nehra, said he would rest for about two weeks before resuming full fledged training. He was now keen to maintain his fitness levels for more laurels. "After about 15-days of rest, I will commence my full fledged training to fine tune my bowling, serious batting practice and fielding besides putting into effect the training schedule given by team trainer," he said. (PTI)Topics mentioned in this article
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