Question 1:- How do you look at team selection?
Answer:- Team selection, yeah, it’s going to be tough. We know many of the guys are in good form, so obviously, that’s a good sign for the team. When you have selection issues, it says a lot about how the guys perform, which is crucial from the team’s perspective.
But you know what we have to do is we have to go to each venue, see the conditions and try and get the best 11. It is as simple as that, and that is what we have done in the past. That is what we will do moving forward. The message to the boys has been very clear. We are ready to play horses for courses. We spoke to the guys at the start of this series and will continue to do that. We have to assess what sort of conditions we are playing in, who are the right guys to go and counter that conditions, and things like that. So we are quite open to all of those options.
Question 2:- On these turning tracks, in the middle order, you need someone as a game changer who comes in and plays a role. Unfortunately, Rishab is not there. So you know, how are you looking at this role, and do you think, as you have said, horses for courses? Do you consider that part when you pick the middle order?
Answer:- Yeah. As I said, when I say something, I mean it. We sometimes have to go by what is right for that particular Test match and right for that particular day, and whichever format it be, whether it’s T20, you need to pick the right guys for that particular format. And in Test cricket, we know it’s five-day cricket, and things keep changing every session every day. So yeah, you have to be prepared to take some brave calls. Yes, as you rightly said, Rishabh was a very important player for us in that middle order, how we batted in the last few years. We will miss that. But we’ve got a few guys to come and do that job for us in the middle. We are keeping an eye on that, on that particular aspect where we need, you know, someone in the middle order to come and do that, not just middle order, even at the top order, you know you because you’re playing on such a challenging pitch. It would be best if you had guys stand up, see and find ways to score runs because it’s not going to be easy. We have seen it in the last few series that we played here. It would be best if you were played as well. So yeah, we’ve had good solid talks with all the batters, finding their methods of scoring runs, countering what is there to offer. So hopefully, tomorrow when we start the game. Hopefully, we can achieve all those things.
Question:- It looks like a lot is being talked about this wicket, especially amongst the Aussies, saying it’s a doctored wicket. What is your take on that? Shubhman Gill Or Sukumar Yadav because one has already played Test cricket and the other one is yet to make it.
Answer:- Speaking about the doctored wicket, I just feel that we have to focus on the cricket that will be played for the next 5 days and not worry too much about the pitch. A lot was spoken about the pitches in the last series we played here. I think, you know, all 22 cricketers were going to play. They’re all quality cricketers. So not to worry too much about what the pitch will be like, how much it is turning, how much it seems and all those kinds of things. You got to just come out and play good cricket and win the game. Speaking about Gill and Surya, I mean, both bring different things to the table for us. Gill, we all know it’s been in supreme form in the last three to four months, a lot of hundreds, big hundreds as well.And on the other hand, Surya as well, I mean, you know, indeed in T20 cricket, he has shown what he’s capable of and what sort of game he can bring to Test cricket as well, you know. So both are quality options for us. We have not decided yet what to do with those two guys. But yeah, I mean, we’ll keep in mind all aspects of the game and see what it is, and I still have to look at the final look at the pitch, and maybe once I have a look at it, probably and have, like I said, 9:00 tomorrow. I’m not going to give you anything today. 9:00 tomorrow is the right time.
Question:- You have 4 spinners, of which two fall in the other category, and the third one is getting there. How much of a boost is it when you consider your options?
Answer:- Yeah, look, I mean, all four of them are quality. There’s no doubt at some stage in their career, whenever you know, they’ve got an opportunity. Jadeja and Ashwin have played a lot together, and they performed consistently. Speaking about Axar and Kuldeep, they’ve done well whenever they got an opportunity. They’ve put the batters under pressure. I mean, it’s obvious to have all four of us available to all four of them available to us is a great sign and gives us that comfort as well. And you know all three of them are quality all around us, not to forget that Kuldeep can be bad if you saw the Test match in Bangladesh got 40 odd crucial runs for us.So, when you have players like those who can do multiple things on the ground, it gives us great options and depth, as well. So I feel having all four of them available to us is a very, very positive sign.
Question:- What do you find personally on a big spinning wicket that the ball spins into you? It is just as difficult to play, more difficult to play having access to that.
Answer:- Yeah, I mean, look. When the ball spins a lot, you know your methods, your preparation and what you think of ways to score runs is very important because when you play on pitches like those, it’s important to have a counter-attacking method as well because you know that’s how you will score runs because if you see you know the spinners are quite smart, the captain, the opposition captain are very smart. They send the field straight away; you know they spread it, so it’s impossible to get boundaries that easily. So you just got to rotate, strike, try and see what are the methods you can score runs of whether it’s sweep, reverse sweep, trying try and using your feet and all those kind of things because, you know, most of us have grown up playing on pitches like this. Everyone has their method. Some of them like to go straight over the head of the bowler, and some likes to sweep, reverse sweep, and things like that. So, you know, that is what we’ve spoken to all the boys find your ways of scoring runs, countering the bowlers, and yeah, it’s going to be challenging. But if you see, the last series that we played against England, I think we played. It works well, but Australia is a different ball game.They’ve got a few quality spinners in their ranks who can trouble us; there’s no doubt about that. So we are quite aware of that, and we’ve spoken at length about what we need to do, how we must come against those types of bowlers.
Question: The last time you faced the, you know, sort of challenging subcontinent ticket for that England series, you’ve got quite a few runs, so you’re playing so many formats. Do you look back at the mindset with which you played that series and then try to bring that in? You know, tell us a bit about how we are preparing for this personally and no one trained today anything, just the thoughts on that.
Answer:- Yeah, it was optional training before the game. We always give that option to the players whether they want to come and train or not, and that is something that’s been happening for years now because we’ve we came here on the 2nd, we started ours like a mini-camp from third onwards. So we’ve had a decent time, you know, going into this series. Usually, that doesn’t happen when you’re playing in India. You assemble a few days before the Test match starts, a couple of practice sessions, and you are into the game. But this time around, it was different. We came here on the four or five training sessions before today, so today was an optional day. A lot of the guys didn’t want to come and train. Make sure that they are fresh for the next 5 days.
And yeah, speaking about the last series that I played, I mean, obviously, for me, preparation is the key and every test series you play, you see, you know, if you prep well, you get the results. You can see the two series, the two big ones we won. We won in Australia the last time when we were there.We had about 20 days to prepare for that, so we prepped well in England. We won, and we drew the series. That’s also because we had, after that world Test Championship final, we had about 20-25 days to prepare ourselves. Nobody chose to come back to India; we stayed there. We had the option to return and then get into the test series, but everyone decided we wanted to stay here and pray for this series.So I think for me as well, that is the key. You know what will happen when you’re playing on pitches like this. You try and visualize that these are the shots that you want to play. So try to teach that kind of thing in your training sessions, which I do. What are the shots I want to play in the Test match? I try and do that in my training sessions, and that’s how I take forward, and that’s how I move forward and try. And going out there and doing it in the game is also important.
When I try and do that in the game, whatever I’ve trained for, whatever shots I’ve played, the mindset is pretty clear that this is what I want to do in the game tomorrow.
Question:- How is the looking at this whole WTC final qualification scenario? Who wins may be enough, three or two. How has that? How much has that been playing on your mind leading into the cities?
Answer:- Honestly, we haven’t spoken too much about that. We want to do well in this series and see what happens. It’s too far ahead to think about that. And you know, there’s a lot of calculation and all that. We don’t want to get into all of that. We want to focus on how to win each Test match because we’re playing in different venues. Different venues will have different challenges. At the moment, we want to focus on the game here and see what we can do as a team and then worry about the Championship final later. We’ve got four solid test matches to play.
So I think our focus has to be on that. And also, I mean, none of the guys you know in our changing room or team room have been talking about that final. We want to come out here and play this Test match and then move on from that because you know it will be a challenging series. There’s no doubt about it. So we want to be up for it, so the focus has to be on one day at a time, focus on that particular day and then see how you can win that particular day. Because you can think about winning the series, the test matches and all. But I think it’s very important that you try and win sessions, win particular days and then move forward.
