00:06Good to go. Guys, we have with us our coach, Mr. Gautam Gandhi. As usual, we take one question at
00:11a time. Yes, sir.
00:24I can hear it. Don't worry.
00:25Yeah, no, the mic has to be there. How is it to see that match-winning innings, especially on a
00:34day that was most needed? And how do you describe that from Sanju?
00:40He's a world-class player. We all know that how good a player Sanju is. And it was all about
00:44backing him. And then when the team needed him the most, obviously today was a day where he probably showed
00:49his true potential as well.
00:50But then hopefully, this is a time for him to kick off and probably two more games to go, hopefully.
00:57Gautam, congratulations on the win. Thank you.
00:59A big part of the victory was set up by how your team kept She-Hope quiet in the power
01:05play in the first innings. Less than 100 strike rate. You used your bowlers interestingly as well.
01:11Could you just describe the plan you had to She-Hope and what you thought of the bowlers' execution to
01:17ensure that him being West Indies' highest run scorer so far could operate only at 90?
01:21Look, I thought we started off really well, especially when you play this kind of a game of this magnitude.
01:27You got to start off really well with the new ball.
01:30And Aish and Hardik, the way they started off in the first three overs was really good. And then Aksar
01:35bowled two overs in the power play, which was again a great job done by him.
01:38Because it's never easy on this wicket, on this ground to bowl two overs in a power play, but Aksar
01:42did that really well.
01:43So I thought that we came out of the power play really well. The power play didn't go away from
01:49us, which again was very important because once the power play goes away from you, it's very difficult to contain
01:54after the power play.
01:55So I thought that once we had the power play in our hand, then obviously we were always in control
02:00of the game.
02:01Gautam, congratulations on the win, congratulations for reaching the semi-final, but would you say Sanju really showed West Indies
02:07how to do the Gangnam style with his footwork today?
02:10Talk to us a little bit about the footwork and the way he accelerated the innings.
02:15You know, sometimes he batted with a strike rate of over 200, then he brought it down. You know how
02:21he controlled it?
02:22Look, I actually thought that he never accelerated the innings. It was just a very, very normal cricketing shot and
02:29I never saw any muscling the ball as well.
02:33And that is the kind of talent he has when you know that you're in control of the game and
02:36you know that you're feeling good.
02:37He's hitting the ball really well in the nets and it's about going in the middle and showcasing that skill
02:42that you had.
02:43And obviously he knew that the wicket was very good quick outfield as well, but again, I've always said that
02:46he's a world class player.
02:47He's a great talent and hopefully he can kick off from now and hopefully we can see a lot more
02:52innings like this from Sanju.
02:53And football?
02:54Look, again, the most important thing is that when you're batting well in the nets, obviously you start moving really
02:59well and the last inning was important against Zimbabwe.
03:02Yes, people will keep looking at his scores and stuff, but then coming back into the team and then playing
03:09that kind of innings of 23-24, I thought must have given him a lot of confidence because obviously the
03:14guy had a tough series against New Zealand, but we always knew the kind of potential he had.
03:18And most importantly, I thought that the way he was batting in the nets was absolutely brilliant. So I think
03:23we've got two guys now, Ishan and Sanju, who are really good for Indian cricket, especially they can keep wickets
03:29as well.
03:29So I think we've got really good guys hopefully for the future as well.
03:35I can't hear you.
03:40Hello, can you?
03:42Yep.
03:42Taking a few from your last answer, like when Sanju was not in between, so what kind of conversation have
03:50you had with him to keep you in the right frame of mind?
03:55Look, I have conversations with everyone and the most important thing is the guys who are part of this squad
03:59are world class players and that's why they're representing the country.
04:02And we always knew the talent that Sanju had, three T20 hundreds, not many people have it.
04:07So we always knew that obviously he had a tough series against New Zealand, so sometimes it's important to give
04:11him a break as well because you want to get the guy off of that pressure situation as well.
04:15And we always knew that whenever we need him in the World Cup game, he'll come and deliver it for
04:19us and exactly against Zimbabwe, yes, he delivered it for us.
04:22We got a start that we wanted in the first three overs and today again, from where he left against
04:28Zimbabwe, he showcased his talent and this is what we expect from Sanju to do more consistently.
04:40Coach, we have seen you have a lot of conversations like with different players, be it Abhishek, Tilak, Sanju here.
04:48When there are a lot of talks around strike rates and how the players are not getting off the blocks
04:53like they were doing in bilaterals, what is your role to tell them not to over complicate things and what
04:59are your messages that you give to the players?
05:01The thing is very clear that bilaterals are very different to World Cups. The pressure is different, the competition is
05:06different, obviously the stakes are much higher as well.
05:09Bilaterals, you've got the time to make a comeback but in World Cups, you don't have time to make a
05:13comeback and more importantly, yes, people can talk about it.
05:17They expect us to play the same brand of cricket what we've played in the bilaterals as well but you
05:21can imagine the pressure the boys go through, especially most of the games are must-win games as well.
05:26Sometimes wickets can be tricky as well. During the bilaterals there were a lot of duo in the second innings
05:30as well but we didn't see a lot of duo during this World Cup campaign.
05:34So I felt that it was not only about the strike rates, it's about reading the game properly and obviously
05:40reading the situation as well.
05:41And that is something that is going to be important and the guys did that really well. Even today you
05:45saw the chasing 195, we never felt that we were out of the game.
05:51Never ever did we felt in 20 overs that the chase was away from us. So the guys kept in
05:56control. Yes, there were times in bilaterals where we could chase the target in 16, 17 overs but this is
06:01World Cup and the pressure is different and the quality is different as well.
06:05Congratulations, I'm in order of course but I want to know 196 is a target that doesn't get chased very
06:11often in the T20 World Cup. In fact this was India's highest successful chase in this competition.
06:15Firstly, what are the sort of conversations you had in the mid-innings and throughout this competition we've seen that
06:20there's no dearth of belief in the team. So how do you inculcate that in the squad?
06:23Look, the best part is that I've played a lot of games I did in gardens, I've seen a lot
06:26of games I did in gardens as well and obviously it's a great chasing ground and we always knew that
06:30it's probably the quickest outfield in the world at the moment and so chase is never out of control.
06:36Till you have wickets in hand you can chase anything on this ground. We saw that in the IPL as
06:40well where 260, 270 were getting chased as well. So we knew that if we can have wickets in hand
06:46we were always under control and again I thought the partnerships are important.
06:49Irrespective of how the format is, which format we are playing, that partnership between Sanju and Surya obviously settled the
06:55nerves as well. So I thought those small small partnerships can make a massive role and someone had to break
06:59the game.
07:00So Tilak broke the game for us in the middle with that cameo and then Sanju batted till the end.
07:04So I thought that it was a very clinical run chase.
07:08Gautam, India have used Bumrah differently in the tournament, sometimes in the power play, sometimes not in the power play.
07:14Today you had three overs for him in the second half of the innings. Is that dependent on the surface,
07:18the opposition, the rhythm? How do you go about planning that?
07:21I think it's more to do with the opposition, where their firepower lies. Especially we knew that West Indies has
07:27got a lot of firepower in the middle with Hitmeyer, Rogman and Scherfane.
07:32And we know that those guys are quality players, those guys can take the game away from us. So we
07:37always knew that we needed someone like Bumrah in the middle to bowl at them and I thought Hardik did
07:41a really good job.
07:41Because sometimes bowling against these guys on this kind of a wicket your fifth bowler actually can always be under
07:46pressure. Hardik and Aksar I thought controlled the game for us because those eight overs were very crucial.
07:51We knew that Arsh, Bumrah and Varun were always about to bowl their four overs. So I thought that for
07:58me today I think the most important thing was how Hardik and Aksar bowled.
08:02Yes, we can keep talking about other three bowlers but that's the reason why we felt that Bumrah was important
08:08in the middle. So every time we have a big over we can go back to Bumrah and try and
08:12control the game.
08:12Because you don't want in a T20 game two back-to-back big overs as well. That can take the
08:17game away from you. So for me I think Bumrah is a banker and we will continue to use him
08:22in different ways.
08:24Coach, in these high-pressure games nerves can play a part irrespective of how experienced a player is but Sanju
08:31never looked like he was overwrought by the occasion. Is that just down to mental strength?
08:37I think it's down to experience as well and mental strength as well. Come the big games, come the knockout
08:42games, come the World Cups, it's all about mental, it's not about skill.
08:44You don't change skill in literally one week or two days or three days. It's about how much can you
08:49absorb the pressure.
08:50And I've always believed in one thing, the guys who absorb the pressure the best will have the best chance
08:54to win this competition.
08:56So I think today was a great sign that we were able to absorb the pressure. As I said that
09:02195 on any wicket on any ground is never easy in a crunch game, in a must-win game.
09:06So I felt that I think absorbing the pressure was the key.
09:09Gautam, in these big tournaments you often say that peaking at the right time after the South Africa defeat India
09:15has had two big wins against Zimbabwe and against West Indies heading into semi-finals and potentially a final.
09:20So do you think that with all the pieces falling together nicely the team is really peaking well?
09:25Look, I don't believe in all this peaking at the right time. You've got to win every game that you
09:28represent your country as simple as it can get.
09:30There is nothing sort of peaking at the right time. It's a short tournament. It's a tournament that comes and
09:36goes very quickly.
09:37So you've got to try and play your A game every time. And it's a format like that where you
09:40can't take any opposition for granted.
09:42So for me, I think all this peaking at the right time, I don't believe in we turn up playing
09:46for the country. We represent 140 crore Indians.
09:49So we want to turn up and win each and every game possible.
09:54Coach, tactically if you could just talk about how things unfold in the dugout because even today we saw a
09:59lot of messages going around.
10:00You had a discussion with Hardik D'Over before he got Rutherford out and he signaled to you after getting
10:06that wicket.
10:07So clearly he was operating to a plan. And the entry points of batters because you have eight batters who
10:11can bat in any and every situation.
10:13So how do you as a coaching unit in consultation with Surya kind of take those calls on when to
10:18introduce a batter or to use your bowling?
10:20Because you use Varun differently. Bumrah was used differently. So is it more instinct driven or do you rely on
10:27a lot on data and videos to take those calls?
10:30I don't believe in data. Honestly, I've never seen a data. I don't even know what data is all about.
10:33I absolutely do not believe in it because I feel it's more about instinct. T20 cricket is about instinct and
10:38backing your instinct as well.
10:41Whatever knowledge I have about the game and T20 format I try and probably give it to the captain and
10:46try and help him out as much as I can.
10:47But ultimately it's the captain that takes the final call. But data and all I don't believe honestly because it's
10:52very overrated.
10:53For me I think we are very fortunate that we've got world class players. We've got guys who we can
10:59use differently because not many teams have that luxury.
11:01Imagine someone like Jaspreet or Archdeep or even Varun. We can use them at any phase of the game as
11:07well come the 20 overs.
11:09And from the batting point of view you've got power. I think that is something which is very important when
11:13you've got power.
11:14You're never away from the chase. You're never away out of the game as well.
11:17You've got people like Tilak who's batted really well in both the innings. He's batted out of his position. He's
11:21batted at No. 3 initially.
11:23But now when we've pushed him at No. 5, 6, see how he's batted. So you've got that talent. You
11:27need to have that talent where you can bat out of positions.
11:29And more importantly positions again are overrated. I feel that it's about going out there and doing the job for
11:35the team and that is what team sport is all about.
11:37And that will continue to be our philosophy going forward.
11:42Could I ask your thoughts on now going to Mumbai and facing England in the semi-final? What are the
11:47challenges there?
11:48Look, they're a world class team. They're a quality team. They've got a lot of quality players as well. And
11:52we all know that Vankhede is a tough venue.
11:55And hopefully I think we can turn up and see that again another opportunity to do something special for the
12:02team, for the country as well.
12:03And hopefully we play our best game as well. That is going to be very important. And hopefully we can
12:07keep ticking all the boxes.
12:09Which is going to be important because we will need a special effort to beat a quality side like England.
12:16Coach, congratulations on a splendid victory. You spoke about Aksha. You spoke about Varun.
12:21But those two boundaries from Shivam Dube changed the course of the match.
12:25Is the recipe of your success dependent on contributions from everybody?
12:31You have created a system where everybody contributes in a little way and that combines to create a delicious dish.
12:38Look, glad you're talking about every contribution because for too many years we've only spoken about certain contributions.
12:44This is a team sport and this will always remain a team sport. For me, I think Shivam's, those two
12:49boundaries are as important as Sanju's 90.
12:50Because if you wouldn't have been able to hit those two boundaries, probably that 95 you wouldn't have even spoken
12:54about.
12:55So it's not only about 95 years he played a special inning but those small contributions actually helps you win
13:01games as well.
13:01The big contribution makes headlines. The small contribution, the contribution that can help the team win across that line is
13:08going to be very important.
13:09And that's why I say that this is going to be the philosophy going forward till I'm there.
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