His now-restrained batting style:
It’s quite difficult, but when you’re getting the runs, it doesn’t matter whether you’re getting them in boundaries, singles, doubles or fours. It’s good to tease the fielders, steal runs from under their noses. If you can maintain your strike rate, it doesn’t matter how you get the runs.
The changes in the batting order:
We’re still not sure about the pattern or the slot in which the batsmen would bat. So, we’re still doing a few thing with it. One good thing is that most of our batsmen adapt well. We have players who’ve batted at Nos 3 and 7, and have opened as well.
Criticism by media:
Well, if you’re criticising me, criticise at that point of time when I’ve made the decision. Not when the result of that decision has come. You are not in the same kind of pressure. It’s easier to spot things after the game. It’s very difficult to judge the conditions there, decide the playing 11. We decide on what’s best for the team, discuss it with a few guys and try to get the best out of the team. Of course, when some final decisions are to be made, I’ll make them.
Dropping Sehwag:
You can play only XI guys, not 13-14. Everyone wants to play, and Sehwag is very crucial to the team for the kind of batsman he is. But at times, you have to decide to play bowlers, and then you have to take this decision. Everyone is fine with this.
Tendulkar’s patchy form:
We shouldn’t be saying anything about Sachin Tendulkar—he’s scored 16,000 runs, we haven’t even played 16,000 balls! So, we should just leave it to Sachin. He’s a player who’ll get back into form with a bang and will be a matchwinner. His very presence makes a difference to the team—you can’t express this in words. He’s there with inputs on everything, from batting to bowling to setting the field. And as a batsman, he’s a bomb waiting to explode.
Backing Yuvraj and Uthappa:
Yuvraj has proved himself as a matchwinner over so long now that he has to be in the team. You have to also see who’s got enough opportunities in the series. I have to take these decisions. I can’t think of pleasing people, because then I’m not thinking about the team’s interests. Batting at Nos 6-7 is difficult—you rarely get more than 30 balls to play, you can’t get big scores. We need to back those batting at these spots, and we need characters who play for the team.
Ishant Sharma’s emergence:
It’s great for the team, the way he’s developed here. He’s bowling in the areas he needs to bowl into—he’s not the normal Indian bowler who swings the ball and pitches it up. He bowls a shorter length, gets pace and bounce. He’s young and fresh. It’s important that we try to preserve him. We want him to bowl at 145-plus kmph when he’s in the team.
