Subhayan Chakraborty
As Gurnoor Brar made his ODI debut against Afghanistan in Dharamsala, he didn’t just announce himself, he rattled the speed gun. Clocking a fiery 148 kph, the towering pacer returned highly impressive figures of 3 for 27 in his 4.5 overs, showcasing a lethal combination of raw pace, late swing and seam movement that left the Afghan batters searching for answers.
Behind the thunderbolts and the televised glory lies a decade-long journey of a reluctant teenager transformed into India’s newest pace sensation, meticulously crafted by two men who saw his destiny before he did — his local coaches Ravi Verma and Varinder Singh.
Long before the 148 kph missiles, Gurnoor was just a tall, fast-growing kid training in the APJ School in Kharar. In 2012, when he first crossed paths with coach Ravi Verma, cricket was merely an afterthought to teenage errands.
“He used to come, but initially, his habit was that he just loved hanging out and roaming around with his friends,” Verma recalls, as he speaks to RevSportz.
At 13, skipping practice was the norm. His parents, prioritising academics like many middle-class Indian families, weren’t entirely aware of the gold mine of sporting genetics their son possessed; helped, no doubt, by father Sukhvir Singh Brar, an assistant sub-inspector, with a solid basketball background. It took Verma’s sheer stubbornness to keep Gurnoor on the pitch.
“What he would do is skip practice, so I used to call his mother at home and say, ‘He is such a good player, a very good talent, please make sure you send him to practice’,” Verma explains. “Instead of getting angry, I built a friendly bond with him, kept him like a friend. Like, keep him in his comfort zone so he doesn’t quit, but make him work hard at the same time.”
That early psychological mastery laid the foundation. Verma nurtured the boy from a comfortable home environment, anchored by a supportive father in the police force, and instilled the belief that he belonged among the elite. As Gurnoor grew, bowling alongside contemporaries like Shubman Gill, that belief hardened into ambition.
If Verma planted the seed, Varinder Singh built the machine. Transitioning to Singh’s academy — Launching Pad Cricket Academy — during the Covid-19 lockdown, Gurnoor walked in as a raw, 135 kph prospect. He walked out as an absolute physical specimen.
“He came to me right in the middle of the lockdown,” Singh notes. “His height and the natural talent he possessed; he had raw pace. When he first came to me, he was bowling around 135… 132, 135 like that.”
Armed with a deep understanding and mastery of biomechanics from his studies in Gurgaon, Singh initiated a gruelling, data-driven overhaul. Gurnoor was subjected to strict monthly computer-based testing, intense plyometrics, and explosive power training.
“We worked on his muscles, his load-up, and we did a lot of gym sessions,” says Singh. “Whatever time I called him, he would arrive at the academy 15 minutes early. He has been eating his food with complete discipline for a long time. That is exactly why he is bowling at 148kph now.”
The road to the Indian dressing room is rarely linear. Just as Gurnoor was making waves at the district level and Sher-e-Punjab T20 Cup, a disc bulge escalated into a stress fracture, wiping out an entire crucial year of his development.
For many pacers, a back stress fracture is the beginning of the end. For Gurnoor, it was the exact moment he became an international caliber threat. Singh refused to let the injury break his ward’s spirit.
“He is a very mentally strong boy,” Singh asserts. “So I explained to him during his injury that this is just a different phase. ‘You are lucky you have gotten this time. Do as much good as you can in this period. Then we will change your actions’.”
Singh used the lengthy rehabilitation to fundamentally remodel Gurnoor’s mechanics, pulling his load-up forward. The result was devastating.
“If he hadn’t gotten that time, maybe we wouldn’t have changed his action,” Singh reflects. “Now his ball is swinging; earlier his ball didn’t swing, it was just fast. We worked on all these things during his injury. He is bowling 148 clicks now. I am sure he will go above 150 kph in the next two games. He has that in him.”
Post-recovery from the back stress fracture, Gurnoor became the top wicket-taker at the Sher E Punjab T20 Cup in 2024 with 22 scalps to his name. For Punjab, in the Ranji Trophy 2024-25, he returned with 26 wickets in seven matches at an average of 20.3. Overall, he has 52 first-class wickets at 27.30. IPL contract with Gujarat Titans followed. The transformation was there for everyone to see.
Gurnoor’s debut ODI spell versus Afghanistan was the masterclass execution of that exact remodelling. The late swing and seam movement that outfoxed the opposition was born in the crucible of that agonising, year-long injury rehab.
As Gurnoor dismantled the Afghan batting line-up, drawing on tactical wisdom passed down by Shubman Gill, two phones rang incessantly in Punjab.
For Ravi Verma, the day brought a nostalgic call from Gurnoor’s father, thanking him for the relentless phone calls to their home 14 years ago. For Varinder Singh, who speaks to Gurnoor almost every alternate day, the emotion is profound and simple.
“What bigger joy could there be for me as a coach?” Singh beams. “There can be no greater happiness than this.”
Gurnoor Brar, with his sensational debut, validated the faith of a village that refused to let his talent slip away, taking his first, massive step onto the global stage.
The post Remodelled by Injury, Driven by Discipline: Two Coaches Who Forged Gurnoor Brar | EXCLUSIVE appeared first on Sports News Portal | Revsportz.
