There is no competition in the gym, Abhimanyu Mithun insists, dissolving into shy fits of laughter. “Actually, everyone in the team knows I can lift the most,” he grins. “So they don’t try competing with me.”
Mithun ponders lazily over the irreverent question of how many press-ups he can do in a row. “I don’t really know,” he says. “At least a hundred, I guess.”
If there has been an image of the imposingly-muscled Karnataka bowler as only an earnest workhorse, Mithun has gone some distance towards destroying it this triumphant Ranji Trophy season. He bowled long and fast, and on soulless pitches produced wickets where there might have been none. He took 44 wickets in all this first-class season, his best returns since his debut winter of cricket in 2009-10.
He also claimed 10 wickets in a match — a singular devastation of Orissa in the group stages of the Ranji Trophy in November — for the first time since that impressive opening campaign.
It must be noted that Karnataka journeyed to the final of the Ranji Trophy both times, but this apparent revival has much to do with Mithun's own development as well.
“In my debut season, my strength was the in-swinger. By the second season, everyone had found out what my strengths and weaknesses were,” he admits candidly.
In the intervening years, his appearances for India notwithstanding, an impression had begun to gain ground that Mithun was a one-dimensional bowler. Ahead of this season, he returned to the nets determined to turn things around. “I changed my running angle and I altered my thinking. I don't worry so much anymore,” he says. “I also have a great deal more control over the away-going delivery.”
All this is part of a visible maturity that might have been lacking in a teenager. “There was a time when I just wanted to run in and bang the ball in hard. Now, I can read the game, see where a session is going. I know what to do when a good batsman is at the wicket. I've definitely matured a lot.”
This year’ Ranji Trophy win, coming as it did after a painful gap of 15 years, held special significance for Mithun. In 2010, he was at the non-striker's end in Mysore when Mumbai shattered Karnataka’s spirit with a six-run victory in the final. “That day, it seemed as if the whole of Mysore was at the ground,” Mithun recalls. “It was still my first season then and it was all incredible. I remember telling (S.) Arvind anna that I’d just swing and score us a boundary but he advised me against it. Eventually, they bowled well and it didn’t happen for us.”
That heartache was soothed to a large extent by this year’s success. It especially delighted his father, Mithun says. “My father doesn’t show it too much but I know he was extremely happy,” he smiles, staring into the ground. “He runs a gym near where we live in Dasarahalli and it was there I started working out as a 14-year-old. If I have had a bad day, he takes my mind off it and talks about something else.”
His father's calming influence has been vital, Mithun feels, in the face of setbacks, of which there have been a few. His chances at India level have been sporadic, last coming some two years ago, but he is only 24 and there is genuine hope there. Then at the IPL auction last month, Mithun was not bought by any of the teams, but there is little sign that it has disturbed him greatly. “Of course I was disappointed but there’s no point dwelling on it. The good thing is that gives me time to work on my bowling. I have plans of going to the UK to play county cricket later. I want to bowl faster and I know I can add two or three yards to my pace.”
The one thread linking Mithun’s five seasons in domestic cricket, though, is his ability to bowl consistently fast with little record of injury. “If I wasn’t this particular about my fitness, I’d have broken down many times,” he says. “That is my strength. Even if I’m travelling and staying at a hotel where there’s no gym, I talk to the trainer and figure something out. I never miss a workout.”
