00:00Yeah. It's a good question. And at times, I don't think that the bowling gets enough
00:07time or credit. There's so much talk about batters and what they can do. I mean, Sunrisers,
00:13I think the way that they've put together their bowling line-up, they've got wicket
00:18takers with the new ball in Shammy, they've got Cummins, they've got Zampa. So to me,
00:22that looks like a really well-balanced line-up. GT, I mean, any time that Rashid Khan's in
00:28your side, you become a threat and you combine that with Rabada. It's a good one. I mean,
00:37you go to Chennai and it seems as though that they've based their team around trying to
00:42win home games. There's plenty of spin options there. And you go, anyone, anyone of Ashwin,
00:49Jadeja, Noor Ahmed, they become a really, really strong bowling line-up. So it's a line-up.
00:58They've all got wicket takers. Yeah, I mean, bowling is such an important part. If you get
01:03wickets into power play, that sets up your game, in my opinion. So when you look down the line-ups,
01:09I mean, Sunrisers, Hyderabad with Cummins, Shammy, Zampa, they're world-class bowlers.
01:15They can do some damage. Mumbai Indians, they've got Boomer, of course, if he's 100% fit. Trent
01:22Bolt, who's done it time and time again. That's a threat against anyone. KJ Rabada and Rashid
01:33Khan, they're great combinations that you can have all throughout the 20 overs. So I think,
01:40while there's always so much focus on the batting and that's where a huge amount of the interest
01:45comes from and the entertainment comes from, I think the bowling side of it is where you win
01:50titles. If you look at Chennai, it looks like that they've built a team to try and win all their
01:58home games. Jadu, Ashwin, Noor Ahmed, they become a real threat, especially playing at a ground
02:07like Chepauk or Lucknow, where the ball can spin as well. So yeah, for me, there's plenty of wicket
02:13takers. There's plenty of people right throughout that are world-class and it'll be such an
02:19important part as well because that's where the titles are won, I think.
02:24My question is that Jake Fraser-Mega had a great first season. This is the second season where
02:30there'll be more eyeballs on him, there'll be more data on him. They will try to decode
02:35Fraser-Mega's team. So how does he evolve and how does he
02:41outwit the opponents when there's so much data available on him now that he's no longer an
02:46unknown agent? Yeah, it's a good question because I think that every player faces that at some point
02:51throughout their career. You come in without a huge amount of knowledge on you, so then you're
02:57able to play your way and you're able to dictate terms to the opposition and you can get ahead of
03:02the game really quickly and that then puts pressure back on the opposition. The challenge
03:06now, obviously, is to still keep that great mindset and that really clear mindset that he had
03:12last season. But, I mean, just evolve with the game slightly as well. Understand that it's not
03:18just about a 10 or 15-ball burst from you. There's a responsibility that once you get in, you make
03:24those good days great and turn them into match-winning and match-defining innings. You
03:31think of somebody, well, a partnership at the top like Travis Head and Abhishek Sharma. When they
03:37both got in, they went big and their teams won games purely on the back of their performances. So,
03:42that's just the next stage. I mean, the more cricket that you play, the more that you start
03:47to understand the opposition as well. So, it's great that teams will now have more information
03:54on him, but he's also got more information as well. So, then trying to come up with game plans
04:00where you can find that one or two percent difference in the game is so important as well.
04:04So, it can also work both ways, but I'll be very excited to see how it goes.
04:11The grammar of T20 batting has changed. In India, we've seen Abhishek Sharma, we've seen
04:17guys like Sanju Samson, how they've gone about their job for India and also for their respective
04:22franchises. Virat Kohli, normally when he plays for RTV bats, either he opens the innings and
04:28most occasions in the past few years or he bats numbers. Do you think he needs to change his game?
04:33He's probably playing at a strike rate of 135-40, but now the industrial strike rate has gone up
04:40160-170 for the openness. So, does Virat Kohli need to change his game in order for RTV to
04:47take full advantage considering their bowling lineup might not be as good as some of the others?
04:53Well, the question you have to ask yourself is, do you want 700 or 800 runs or are you happy with
05:00400? Because if you want Virat to strike higher, he can absolutely do that. But with that comes a
05:07higher risk and the consistency will go down. So, in my opinion, if you offered me 750 runs
05:15from one of your top three batters at the start of the season, you would take that every day of the
05:19week. So, I don't think that there's a huge need to change. Maybe it's a slight tempo or
05:27changing the tempo up slightly. But overall, I would bank the runs every single day of the week.
05:33And then you start to build your team around somebody like that. It's not just about people
05:38who walk out of the change rooms and strike at 200 from ball one. I think that that's unrealistic to
05:44ask seven batters to do that all in the one team because when it doesn't go well, you lose the
05:51game. So, there's a real balancing act still. I know that the game's gone to a new level in the
05:55last two seasons, but you still need to have the foundations and you still need to have that person
06:01there that's able to strike and bat deep into the inning. So, I would bank the runs every single day
06:07of the week. But just taking the question forward, but Rohit Sharma, actually in T20 cricket
06:16for the past two years and also in one-day cricket, he had changed more than his game.
06:19He went for a high-risk approach where probably the centuries had been cut down. Maybe the big
06:24sports have come down. But he's always, more often than not, giving the team a good start. So,
06:30isn't it like in a short game like 120 balls, possibly there is no place for consolidation.
06:38It's only attacking the best defense kind of thing, grammar has changed.
06:44Yeah, I understand the question. But when you look at the way that Rohit's done it,
06:48have a look at the players that he's had around him. He still had the foundations of a player
06:52that the team can bat around him. So, it's okay to walk out and swing from the hip and look to
06:59try and dominate and hit a lot of sixes from early in your innings. But you have to understand
07:04the dynamic of the team around that. When you look, when Rohit's made that conscious decision,
07:10he's had Virat coming in behind him at number three. So, there's an ability for him to say,
07:14you know what, I've got the guy behind that will fix any mistakes that I make.
07:17Because the upside is huge. But you can't have everybody in the team just looking to swing for
07:22the fences from ball one. So, that's a really, that's a good question. And I understand that
07:28Rohit's done that and he's been very successful doing it. And the starts that he's got India off
07:33to have been brilliant. But I don't see the need for Virat to have to change to do that.
07:38Maybe if his strike rate goes from 140 to 150, he can absolutely do that. No issues whatsoever.
07:44But how many times has he been in a situation where he's had to almost dig RCB out of the
07:51hole? Because everybody else has fallen around him. So, like I said before, I would bank the runs
08:00every day of the week from a top three player. Because that gives the rest of the order so much
08:04freedom. That gives you the option to be more aggressive from the other batters.
08:12My last question would be like, Surya had a tremendous season in 2023-24.
08:19In 2024, he had a lean season even by his standards for India and in the IPL.
08:26So, he's going to lead India in the World Cup next year. So, how important is the season? And do you
08:32think he needs to change his game? Maybe have some more shots? Like, he's always playing the shot
08:39behind the square. Maybe some more range? Some more options in front of the square, you think, he should look at?
08:48I think if you talk to any bowler around the world who's bowled to him, they'll say that he's got
08:52enough shot options. What we've seen over the last couple of years is his ability now to hit over
08:58mid-off. That's something that teams felt as though was a weakness to him. You're able to
09:04leave mid-off up because that was an area of weakness. But now, he can destroy you over there.
09:09So, it's obviously a big season for him. He sets high standards for himself. So,
09:17leading into a T20 World Cup that he's going to lead, I don't think that this IPL has any
09:22impact on that. I don't think it has any bearing either. But he's got enough shots. He can
09:28play all around the ground. So, he's a world-class player and as good as anybody
09:33in the world to watch when he's in full flight.
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