Mumbai: Stocky off-spinner Ramesh Powar on Thursday dismissed criticism about the extra flab on his midriff, saying he might lose his basic art if he began bothering about his physical appearance.

“Honestly the criticism has not affected me. I can’t change my structure. I can’t look like a Mohammed Kaif or a Jonty Rhodes,” the 27-year-old Powar said. “I try and improve my agility. If I try to shed 7 kilos or so, I would lose my strength which is my bowling.”

Powar, who has taken 11 wickets in his last 10 ODIs after going wicketless in his first two matches in Pakistan in 2004, said the two-year gap away from international cricket helped him become a better bowler.

Powar singled out a tip given by Sachin Tendulkar that helped him improve. “In the Bangalore camp in 2002, Sachin told me to try and make the batsmen attempt to drive me. It helped me a lot as I did not know this aspect before. I started taking a lot of wickets after that,” he said.

Powar said since he had played only two ties under Sourav Ganguly’s captaincy, he was not in a position to talk about his captaincy style, but was all praise for Rahul Dravid. (PTI)