Dubai: Rohit Sharma’s astute captaincy was a reason for India’s T20 Cricket World Cup win in the USA and West Indies. His man-management skills and attention to details are outstanding, that’s something not known outside the dressing room.
Paddy Upton, former mental conditioning coach of the Indian team which won the 2011 World Cup, said Rohit treats everyone from the junior-most player to the most senior player equally.
Read the full story here: https://gulfnews.com/sport/cricket/how-india-will-find-replacements-for-rohit-sharma-virat-kohli-and-ravindra-jadeja-1.1719922696232
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Read more Gulf News stories here: https://bit.ly/2HLJ2km
Paddy Upton, former mental conditioning coach of the Indian team which won the 2011 World Cup, said Rohit treats everyone from the junior-most player to the most senior player equally.
Read the full story here: https://gulfnews.com/sport/cricket/how-india-will-find-replacements-for-rohit-sharma-virat-kohli-and-ravindra-jadeja-1.1719922696232
See more videos at https://gulfnews.com/videos
Read more Gulf News stories here: https://bit.ly/2HLJ2km
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NewsTranscript
00:00So, India is definitely at an advantage.
00:02The better the state systems, the better the national academy system gets, the more India,
00:08I believe, have got all the potential to go a long way ahead of anyone else in the world.
00:14And that really is about having good systems of nurturing young players because there is
00:19absolutely no shortage of players to step into those roles.
00:24And when Dhoni left, people thought, well, this is the end of Indian cricket.
00:30How are we going to recover from it?
00:31And when Tendulkar left, we thought, how are we going to recover from it?
00:34And when Anil Kumble left, how are we going to recover?
00:37We are having to say, we've recovered and India has recovered and done beautifully.
00:41And we're asking the same questions.
00:42How are we going to go post Kohli, post Rohit?
00:46I promise you, we'll have people standing up and taking their places in time.
00:51The only person I'm not...
00:52If you ask the question, how are we going to recover post Bumrah, that I'm not sure.
00:57But the others, I think we will recover from in time.
01:01Hello, everyone.
01:03Welcome to the Gulf News video chat, The Straight Bad.
01:08Today's topic, as you would have guessed it, it's India's T20 World Cup win.
01:12With me is Satish, our sports editor, and we have a very, very special guest that is
01:17Paddy Upton.
01:18Paddy Upton has been with us before.
01:20He is the former mental conditioning coach of South Africa and Indian national teams.
01:26So he's been to the dressing room of both these teams.
01:28So he knows a thing or two about how these teams prepare and what goes through their
01:32mind.
01:33And in fact, it's precisely what we want to know.
01:35So let's dive straight in.
01:37Let's get Paddy on board.
01:38Paddy, tell us your impressions of the World Cup.
01:40Yeah, Asham.
01:41Thanks very much for having me on the show again, Satish.
01:43Good to see you again.
01:45World Cup is always an amazing event.
01:48It brings so many eyes from so many different countries to the box and it tugs on a whole
01:53lot of people's heartstrings.
01:54Every game, there's half the people watching and playing are disappointed and the other
01:58half are super excited and happy.
02:01And I guess being low scoring, it wasn't very entertaining as we used to in T20 cricket
02:06in terms of fours and sixes, but certainly entertaining in terms of a number of very
02:10close results that kept everyone on the edge of their chair right until the end of a lot
02:14of games.
02:16Satish, very unlike T20 tournament, like Paddy said, it's low-scoring matches.
02:22What do you make of the World Cup?
02:24Because we are coming off a high-scoring tournament like the IPL and into a low-scoring matches
02:29in the US and the West Indies, very, very different form of T20 we've seen, right?
02:36Asham, I quite like this kind of a format.
02:41Because there is an equal tussle between the bat and ball instead of just going on
02:47and we don't know whether it's two or 50 is defendable to a total.
02:52These kind of matches were becoming more dull and drab, in my opinion.
02:56Actually, this is a good template for ICC for every tournament to move forward.
03:01Bigger grounds, 70-75 metres of the outfield makes it difficult for the batsmen to constantly
03:08hit the six because then they'll have to change their approach, maybe run two, then it makes
03:13them tired.
03:14So, it's a beautiful template.
03:16I think this is the way to go forward.
03:18I quite like every single match because the good wickets, the true wickets also reduce
03:25the gap between the elites and then the associate nations where you could see Nepal losing by
03:31Iran, USA beating Pakistan.
03:34These are some of the matches that still sticks in our mind.
03:36These are the matches that were missing when we were seeing so many high scores, so many
03:43matches that were played on smaller grounds with so many sixers.
03:49I think this is, as Paddy said, it's a very entertaining World Cup in a different way,
03:55but I think this sticks in your mind more than the other ones.
03:59That's my feeling.
04:00Yeah, we say that, sorry, just to come in there, I mean, entertaining from a results
04:04at the end of the game perspective, but realistically fans are used to watching and much more excited
04:09about watching a four and a six and often say that, you know, a bowler bowling a dot
04:13ball, it's only the mother, only the bowler's mother that's interested in them bowling a
04:17dot ball and gets excited.
04:19It's not awesome for the fans compared to seeing fours and sixes.
04:23Yeah.
04:24No, but I liked it.
04:25I like this kind of tournament where there is a good, good fight between the bat and
04:30the ball.
04:31I mean, the score was like 115 was defendable.
04:34So that also puts the batsman in a lot of tough situations where skills are tested.
04:40So it's, it gives you the complete perspective of a matchup.
04:44Yeah, I wouldn't say balance because I would say it was tilted in favor of the bowlers,
04:49but we saw a different, different set of skill sets coming into play.
04:52So we just, we just very, very, very, something very unique.
04:56In fact, pretty much an eye opener because we saw some, some test match skills being
05:00employed in the T20, which I thought we would never see.
05:03Now, Paddy, coming back to this.
05:05Okay.
05:06Now, India has finished the tournament unbeaten.
05:10And this is perhaps the first time because even in the previous World Cup, they finished
05:13short.
05:14And what has been the difference which made this team go all the way?
05:20You know, I think one of the biggest difference, to be honest, Shaan, is luck.
05:24And that might sound strange that certainly in the last ODI World Cup where India won
05:29nine out of nine going into the final.
05:32They were the favorites.
05:33They could easily have won that.
05:34The fact that they didn't, that happens.
05:38Where if we take the World Test Championship, for example, early in the year, that it made
05:42sense that India didn't win that because all the players were coming straight out of the
05:46IPL and had very little opportunity to prepare for the five-day cricket.
05:51But this is a team that's been together a long time.
05:54They understand how they work.
05:57Rahul has been there a long time.
05:59Rahat Sharma.
06:00Everybody knows their roles in the team.
06:02And it was just a matter of time.
06:03And I would say, as I said, I think India deserved to win this one.
06:07I think they deserved to win the ODI World Cup early in the year.
06:11They were unlucky not to win that.
06:12And I won't say they were lucky to win this one.
06:14I'd say they were the better team and it made sense that they won it at the end of the day.
06:19So I don't know that there was too much difference.
06:21It was still a good team that deserved to win.
06:25The reality, one of the things that was different now is, I always said going to big moments,
06:30the two teams that you fear the most is either a team that's full of confidence or the team
06:35that's got nothing to lose.
06:37And very often, if you go in as the favourite to the final, everyone expects you to win.
06:42And I'd rather go into a final as the underdog where people don't expect us to win.
06:47The pressure is not on the underdog.
06:49And India has gone into every final they played in the last good few years as the clear favourite.
06:54Even though Australia have won a lot more ICC tournaments.
06:59But in terms of balance of strength and quality of players, India has always gone in the favourite.
07:04And that's very difficult to go in from that position.
07:06So Dinesh, India won all the matches here.
07:11What happens is in such kind of situations, a lot of these wins tend to paper over the
07:17shortcomings.
07:18Do you think there was any room for improvement in this World Cup, going by the strictest
07:23World Cup matches?
07:24Shaan, I see one big difference that helped the team win is, if you look at every single
07:32match, there was a different man of the match or the player of the match in this World Cup.
07:37Whereas in the 50-0 World Cup, just to go back one World Cup before, there Kohli was
07:42getting runs in tons and they were not tested as much as they were tested in this World
07:48Cup.
07:49You got to have, Kohli was not getting runs in the initial phase, Panth or Suryakumar
07:57or even for that matter, even Shivendra Bae or Pandya, Bumrah, Ashdeep, they were all
08:04contributing enough for this team to win every match.
08:08It was a nuclear favourite.
08:11Even though India was the favourite, they had to fight for every match, win every match
08:17including the USA game where they were in a bit of a spot.
08:21They had to win the matches after a bit of a fight.
08:24So these kind of victories steal the players and that makes it, that gives the confidence
08:29that yes, if A is not scoring, B is performing, C is not performing, D is performing.
08:35So this makes the team a wholesome team and then as a unit, they were able to come forward
08:42instead of just one or two individuals.
08:45In that way, I think this World Cup is more of something very similar to the 1983 or the
08:501992 World Championship, not the, yeah, 1992, the Austria World Benchmark Series that we
08:57won.
08:58Each match, there was a different performer, different, somebody put their hand up differently
09:05and then they won the match for India, which makes it a lot more wholesome than one or
09:12two players doing it, Shyam.
09:14That is the key, this is what the key difference between the previous occasions and this time
09:20in the Indian team.
09:21Yeah, I would like to speak about a few individuals here.
09:24Before that, I think I need to give, we need to talk about South Africa also.
09:28Now Paddy, if you look at South Africa's performance, they have been through lots of crisis during
09:36our tournament.
09:37They have suffered quite a few scares coming into the final.
09:43How do you see their performance or how do you evaluate their performance in this tournament?
09:47Yeah, I mean, that's a very good question.
09:49I think first and foremost, South Africa can be very, very proud of themselves going unbeaten
09:54and giving India such a run for their money and actually getting their nose ahead in that
09:59final, in the final straight there.
10:01So they did unbelievably well to get there.
10:03Given the fact that South African cricket teams come off a long period of very poor
10:10administration within South African cricket that really has undermined a lot of the systems,
10:15a lot of the players, they've coming off the back of a lot of challenges, losing a lot
10:22of players, for example, to overseas.
10:25So they really had to fight and scrap to form a good team and back each other.
10:31And it's a fairly youngish team, although there's some older players, but it's not a
10:37well-established team that's been playing together for a long period.
10:39That's what I'm like, to a degree, the Indian team have.
10:42So they've definitely come off the back foot in terms of South African cricket, in terms
10:47of the talent and where they are, and done exceptionally well to get as far as they have got.
10:52Yes, and by the same token, they did make it more difficult for themselves in a number
10:58of games where if you look at India's campaign through to the final, they won most games
11:04fairly comprehensively.
11:05They didn't get very much advantage away.
11:08As Satya said, at each game, different individuals stood up and performed.
11:12In comparison, the South African journey towards the final is they, quite a few times, they
11:18gave significant advantage away and turned it into a nail-biting finish, where they actually
11:23should have finished fairly comprehensively.
11:25And that, I would say, slight, I won't call it a habit, but just a little trend within
11:31the team.
11:32We saw exactly that happen when they got to a stage of needing, I think, 24, 24 balls
11:37that put themselves in a commanding position and, like they did earlier, relinquished that,
11:42which champion teams generally don't do.
11:44Satheesh, what did you make of South Africa's performance?
11:49Because when they were on song, they looked like a champion side.
11:53But at the same time, they win against a side like Nepal by one run.
11:57How do you assess that difference in performance?
12:03Chum, as Paddy said, if somebody has got to that stage where they have got the control
12:11of their game, they should finish it.
12:13I think that's where South Africa missed it.
12:15And then if you look at the Bangladesh game, or even if you look at the Nepal game, or
12:21if you look at even the West Indies game, they somehow managed to win, but it was not
12:27convincing.
12:28If you look at match winners, South Africa had more match winners.
12:32For example, Dicot could turn the match around on his day, Klaassen, Miller, Markram.
12:39They all had the talent, they all can do it.
12:42But the thing is, I think they didn't take ownership of that, completing the task.
12:47Like for example, if you take in comparison, India were in trouble against USA, Surya Kumar
12:53held and then he stood there.
12:55And once he got in, and then after the initial, the difficult phase initially, then he stood
13:01there till the end.
13:02That's how one needs to do, to win tournaments like the World Cup.
13:07Whereas Klaassen, instead of going all out and then hitting that big shot, if he had
13:12just played a non-sensible cricket at that point of time, I'm not blaming Klaassen.
13:17He brought South Africa back.
13:19That is where the difference comes in.
13:20If he had waited, probably played 1s and 2s at that point of time, probably South Africa
13:25would have eased into the, eased past that goal.
13:29But trying to keep the same momentum, playing the same shot, he didn't take ownership and
13:33he didn't try to complete the game.
13:35Whereas that left a huge hole and then it gave India a chance to sneak into that game.
13:42So this is exactly what they need to play.
13:45In fact, one of the games where Klaassen himself said, we need to play test match cricket.
13:49It's no longer a T20 game that we need to play.
13:52But I think he forgot or some of them, they keep forgetting at the crucial time and then
13:58fritter away the advantage that they had earlier during the course of the game.
14:07But that's the only way I have seen Klaassen play.
14:09He plays in one gear and it's fabulous when it comes off, I can tell you.
14:14But Pari, leave us out of class and let's talk about Aydan Markram.
14:18He is a very unlike leader, isn't it?
14:21He comes across as an introvert person, but he manages to rally the person around, I mean,
14:25his team around.
14:26How does he do it?
14:27Because they are saying that he is a blend of, say, somebody like Hansi Kroenig and the
14:36previous…
14:37One another…
14:38Who's the youngest?
14:39Smith.
14:40Graeme Smith.
14:41Yes.
14:42Graeme Smith.
14:43Yes.
14:44They are saying he is a blend of both.
14:45How do you make up for Aydan Markram as a leader?
14:49I have never worked with Markram personally, so I can't give that inner insight into it.
14:55But certainly what I hear from players within the team and people I have spoken to, Markram
15:01was earmarked as the next captain.
15:05People felt, and some of the players within the team, even someone like Kwaf Du Blessee,
15:09when he was captain of the team, he felt that Markram was being groomed as probably the
15:14person to take over from him.
15:16Within the inner ring of South African cricket circles, he has been earmarked as the captain
15:20for a long time, and he's probably taken two to three years longer to mature in his own
15:26game in order to secure his place, which has then enabled South Africa to be more comfortable
15:32in picking a captain.
15:33But he seems to be a natural leader.
15:36He's always been a natural leader all the way through.
15:39And as I said, I do think if he found his game a bit more consistently a bit earlier,
15:43we may well have found him having been nominated captain three years ago, as far as what I
15:48may hear from the inner ring.
15:49Yeah, yeah, yeah.
15:50Very true.
15:51He has issues with finding his own place, retaining his own place, because he's re-invented
15:57his game quite a few times.
15:59But yes, he's been South Africa captain, perhaps in the under-19 ranks, winning the first World
16:04Cup for South Africa.
16:06So I think we'll hear more of Markram in the days to come.
16:10Now, let's leave Markram aside, and the biggest topic now is about Virat Kohli.
16:15Did you think Virat Kohli would walk away from the format?
16:18Because he is somebody who lives the game with respect to the format.
16:22And you have worked with Kohli.
16:24So tell us what's gone through Kohli's mindset.
16:28Yes, it certainly didn't surprise me, number one, to see him deliver in the final after
16:35having a very below-average tournament.
16:37There was no surprise there.
16:38And when he announced his retirement from the T20 format, again, there was no surprise
16:43there at all.
16:44I think he really has had his tenure.
16:47There's been a lot of people questioning the way he plays T20 cricket.
16:51One thing Virat does, he understands the combination of the players around him, and he's very good
16:55at adapting accordingly.
16:57But in terms of where he is in his age, number one, looking at what is the future of Indian
17:03T20 cricket, he can see some very, very serious contenders for, and very capable contenders
17:11to take the T20 game forward in India.
17:13I think it's a very mature decision for him both personally, where he is in his family
17:19life, where he is in his career, and a very mature decision from an Indian cricket perspective,
17:25really looking after the best interests of Indian cricket going forward and handing it
17:30over to youngsters to be able to take their place now.
17:34And then finally, if you look at the player, once they start getting into their mid and
17:37late thirties, every batsman, particularly even more so every bowler, they've only got
17:43a certain amount of games left in them before they're spent and the battery's empty.
17:49And you want to be allowing them towards the back end of their career to pick what are
17:53the formats that they think they are best at, that they can add the most contribution,
17:58and allow players to choose their format.
18:00It's very debatable conversation, but from a player's perspective and longevity, they
18:05should even play like Kohli, be allowed to determine which tournaments or which games
18:09he plays or not, because he's only got, let's say, 50 more games for India.
18:15And we can have him play 50 dead rubber games, we can have him play all formats and finish
18:19those 50 games in the next year and a half, or you can say, play those 50 games over time,
18:25look after yourself, look after your body, recover well, have nourishment from your family
18:29that every father needs, particularly.
18:34And let's have you nice and fresh and playing the important games for the country over the
18:38next period of time and get the best out of them in the best games.
18:42It's just a view that...
18:43Satish, again, did you surprised that all three of them went out, Kohli, Rohit Sharma
18:52and Jadwiga, did that come as a surprise?
18:55No, but I didn't expect this.
18:59Now, maybe I expected Rohit, because obviously, fitness-wise, Rohit is not in great shape,
19:07whereas Kohli was.
19:09So, I expected Kohli to continue until the next World Cup, at least, because he could
19:13play all three formats, as a player, as a fit player.
19:18But Kohli's move did come in as a surprise for me, Sharm.
19:25But Jadeja, maybe he thought he could be more useful playing the test matches, so he thought.
19:33And Akshar Patel, doing well, must have also put more pressure on him and he must have
19:38thought, OK, why stop him from playing more.
19:44And it must have made his decision much more easier.
19:49So that way, maybe Jadeja was not all that difficult.
19:55But another question which I would like to go is, at least, Rohit and Kohli, you have
20:02a good replacement coming in, in terms of Yashaswi, in terms of Tura, in terms of Shubman
20:09Gill.
20:10How do you somehow fit those guys with Pandya and all these guys augmenting?
20:15But one thing, the Indian board needs to look at is, the spinners cupboard is a bit empty.
20:22You don't have too many spinners at this point of time.
20:25Three spinners with the best three spinners, all three played.
20:29Of course, the only other person remaining is Chahal, who's not young anymore, he's also
20:34old.
20:36So we need to look at building up finger spinners, building up wrist spinners, building up more
20:42spinners, which I've been looking at in the last couple of IPLs as we don't have too many
20:50young spinners making the mark in the IPL.
20:53So I think that should be the next target, to find a good replacement for Ravindra Jadeja,
20:58who can bat, who can bowl, who can feel well as well, like the gun feel.
21:03So we might not know the contributions he might be making, but he does make a lot of
21:09contributions to the team.
21:11So it is also going to be a big challenge for the Indian board to find a replacement
21:18for Jadeja.
21:19Yeah, we talked about Markram, we talked about the leadership.
21:24Paddy, I want you to look at Rohit Sharma in this particular World Cup.
21:31He had a tough time because he lost the Mumbai Indians captaincy and he's coming to the World
21:39Cup to lead the side.
21:41And you look at the other person, that is Hardik Pandya, who took over from Rohit Sharma
21:49and fared badly.
21:50In fact, he had perhaps the worst tournament in the IPL and here he comes into the World
21:55Cup and both of them gave one of their best performances in the World Cup.
22:00How does it happen?
22:01Again, no surprise, champions stand up, they're revealed and they deliver on the big stage.
22:09Hardik is someone who is known to deliver on the big stage and he will continue to do
22:15so with his confidence, his skill level.
22:17So no surprise that Hardik is back on the stage to deliver.
22:21And as far as Rohit goes, everybody sees the contributions that Rohit makes with the bats.
22:29He's made a number of really significant contributions even during this time to the team getting
22:34to the finals.
22:36What people don't see is two things in particular.
22:40Is number one, Rohit is one of the best man managers that I've seen in international cricket.
22:48He has an unbelievable ability to really create a warm, fertile, engaging environment that
22:56brings the best out of individuals and allows them to fully be themselves from the youngest
23:02player in the team through to a very senior player like Virat Kohli.
23:05He's an unbelievably heartfelt, sincere people's person.
23:12He's great in that and he creates a great environment.
23:14No surprise that in a difficult environment like Mumbai Indians, he's able to create such
23:20a good environment that enables people to deliver the amount of trophies they have over
23:25the years.
23:26Man management, he gets a plus.
23:28The other thing that Rohit does that virtually nobody sees, even many of the players in the
23:33team don't see, is the amount of time that he invests, spending with the support staff,
23:40particularly with Rahul and the video analysts, in analyzing every tiny detail of the opposition,
23:48of the venues, of the pitches, and of the Indian team.
23:53He sits through two, three, four hours of detail that normally only happens with the
23:58analyst and the coach and then they bring the relevant stuff to the captain.
24:02But Rohit sits in on those meetings and the amount of detail, as I said, that he goes
24:08into and that he understands.
24:09So when he makes bowling changes and he makes field placing changes, he has been part of
24:15hours and hours and hours of analysis that he doesn't have to put in.
24:19I don't think very many of the international captains, not just in cricket but in other
24:25sports, spend as much time going into that detail analysis.
24:30It's quite unique to have someone so analytically detailed and so excellent in terms of people
24:36management.
24:37The other person right alongside him that we really need to mention, who has got equally
24:41those two qualities at the high level, great management, great analysis, is Rahul Dravid.
24:47So you've got two amazingly detailed and heartfelt people leaders.
24:53That contribution is something that doesn't get measured on a scoreboard, but it really
24:57does count.
24:58Satish, just taking that about what Paddy said slightly forward.
25:04In the final, things didn't go according to plan.
25:08In fact, Rohit did have to shuffle his bowlers, not in the usual way what he did in the previous
25:15game.
25:17He had to have contingency plans.
25:18He had to go to plan B, plan C. And if you look at, Jadeja has just bowled one over.
25:24And Rohit, hardly Pandya could bowl only one over when Klasen was going big in great guns.
25:32So things changed swiftly on the field.
25:38You could see he's had plans for everything.
25:40How do you see his captaincy in the final?
25:44Sam, I quite like the way he did it in this final.
25:49Because I think that was the biggest…
25:53In my opinion, he didn't try enough in the previous World Cup final against Australia.
25:58In shufflers, batting, maybe he could have tried something different on those conditions.
26:04But here, yes, he tried to bring in the spinners early on during the power play.
26:09He thought maybe the wicket will spin and get some early wickets.
26:13He tried his best.
26:14But unfortunately, the Sarpattas, whatever he tried, did not work out until he had to
26:20go back to his trusted warrior, Hardik Pandya, who actually, if you look at, he bowled a
26:26very good first over.
26:28But he gave away a six, which was a pretty good shot off the back foot.
26:32So he gave away something like nine runs.
26:34So that must have made Rohit to change Pandya.
26:40But when Pandya came in, the wicket had actually slowed down to such an extent that it was
26:46not coming on to the bat nicely for the medium pacers.
26:49If you look at him in Unreached Nokia, he did the same thing in the final over.
26:53He conceded very little runs there.
26:56So I think when he went to his trusted warrior, he delivered.
27:02But I should give full marks to Rohit for trying everything.
27:06And instead of doing something again, he brought in Pandya.
27:11But again, if you look at one point of time, in that extra over, I probably thought he
27:17would have brought in Bumrah at that point of time.
27:20But I think probably he waited one more over for Bumrah to finish it, take it to the end.
27:27But that proved very costly.
27:28But after that, if we sit down and talk years and years to come, but doing it in such a
27:36high-pressure situation and trying it out and had the guts to do it, it takes a lot
27:43of guts to do it.
27:44So I think that is one area which he has done well.
27:50But I wouldn't say we are lacking behind in Hardik Pandya if he gets the position.
27:56Because he is another guy who also likes to try it out.
27:58He also likes to do things.
28:00If you look at the T20 World Cup in 2007 and T20 World Cup in 2024, the last over was not
28:08bowled by the best bowler.
28:10So that way, then you can look at how Dhoni and Rohit, they tried to gamble and then they
28:17brought in the best bowlers earlier so that you could match in the penalty over, not until
28:22the end.
28:24Yeah, these days, they try to close out the matches earlier.
28:27Now, just before we wind up, Paddy, the last question to you.
28:33How do you see the Indian cricket, the future?
28:36Because these 3 major players are stepping into the Durotime and you are going to see
28:40an entirely new set of players coming in.
28:42We have already seen there, some of them have come in in the previous tours where Kohli
28:46and Rohit Sharma had taken a step back.
28:50So, we have players coming through.
28:52How do you see them stepping into such big shoes?
28:59I think Indian cricket is in exceptionally good hands with the crop of youngsters that
29:03are coming through.
29:04Not just the crop of youngsters, what really the advantage India has is obviously the number
29:09of cricketers that come through the ranks, the number of state teams, the amount of opportunity
29:14that players get to play in all the different formats within India, culminating or prior
29:20to getting to the national team, you have got the IPL, which is an absolute gift for
29:26at least 56 players, Indian players or even more are playing every IPL game each time
29:33games are played.
29:35That exposure is just invaluable and there is the opportunity there to really breed an
29:42exceptional cricketers, prepare them for the highest level of play.
29:45So, India is definitely at an advantage.
29:48The better the state systems, the better the national academy system gets, the more
29:53India, I believe, have got all the potential to go a long way ahead of any else in the
29:59world and that really is about having good systems of nurturing young players because
30:04there is absolutely no shortage of players to step into those roles.
30:11When Dhoni left, people thought, well, this is the end of Indian cricket, how are we going
30:16to recover from it?
30:17And when Tendulkar left, we thought, how are we going to recover from it?
30:20And when Anil Kumble left, how are we going to recover?
30:22We are having to say, we have recovered and India has recovered and done beautifully and
30:26we are asking the same questions.
30:28How are we going to go post Kohli, post Rohit, I promise you, we will have people standing
30:34up and taking their places in time.
30:36The only person I am not, if you ask the question, how are we going to recover post Bumrah, that
30:41I am not sure, but the others I think we will recover from in time.
30:46Okay.
30:47Shama, I would love to interrupt, sorry, since you said it's the last question, I will just
30:52chip in.
30:53Paddy, you have been part of the 2011 thing room and now you saw 2024, the next World
30:59Cup we are winning after 13 years.
31:02So what are the similarities that you could see from outside, one, and you have also worked
31:08with Gandhi.
31:09I remember you saying that Gambhir is a high-pressure situation player and he is such a strong head
31:17and all that.
31:18Even in case if he comes and fills in that role of Rahul Dravid, how will it be and what
31:23will be the future of the Indian team?
31:26Yeah, I mean, the similarities I see with almost any teams that win at the highest level,
31:31number one, you need to have excellent preparation and that to a large degree falls on the coach's
31:36shoulders.
31:37In 2011, you had Gary Curzon, now Rahul Dravid, both of them very similar players, very similar
31:42coaches, understated, very much team first, incredibly detailed, very good man managers.
31:50Then you need players who are bankers in high-pressure situations and yes, in 2011, the two obvious
31:56high-pressure bankers were Gautam Gambhir and MS Dhoni, everybody knew that.
32:01And similarly in this one, going to this tournament, you had high-pressure bankers, Virat Kohli
32:05was almost predictably going to come good on the highest stage, that's what champions
32:12do.
32:13You had a player like in this case, Abumrah, who is actually a banker in high-pressure
32:19situations.
32:20So, you know, whoever the next, I don't know, has Gambhir been announced as captain, I mean,
32:26coach has been…
32:27Not yet, not yet.
32:28He's a top contender.
32:29Yeah.
32:30What's important is the coach-captain relationship is probably the key because a coach doesn't
32:36bring everything, a captain doesn't bring everything.
32:39When you have a coach and captain relationship that complement each other and work well together,
32:44that the leadership sets the tone for the team going forward.
32:48And there are a number of teams where you have coach and captain relationship that doesn't
32:51work that well or they see things differently or they see things too similarly and you don't
32:56have a balanced coach-captain leadership approach, that's where teams stumble and gaps
33:02fall.
33:03So, it doesn't really matter so much as who the coach is.
33:06Obviously, India will pick a very qualified candidate, but it's who's the captain going
33:11to be and how they're going to work together that's really going to determine the medium-term
33:15future.
33:16Thanks, Farid.
33:17Thanks, Satish.
33:18And that is all from gulfnews.com.
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33:28Thank you very much.