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, perhaps in a bid to emulate the legendary Kapil Dev.
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," Balaji, whose 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, told PTI at the airport after his arrival from Delhi on Sunday.
The Indian new ball bowler, who took six wickets in the five ODIs and 12 in the three Tests, said he was more than happy to be part of the series winning team but added he had to maintain his fitness levels for more laurels.
Balaji recalled that his mother's ambition that "we (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.
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.
"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.
