How crucial is the workload factor for a fast bowler? Does he need to pick and choose? I hate it when they say that a bowler has been rested. Usually, what happens is when a bowler gets rested after playing in three matches, his replacement comes in and takes a five-for. Now, with both doing equally well, whom does the management choose? Personally I think It breeds a lot of insecurities in the team.
So if you want to be a good fast bowler, you got to be the fittest in the team. If you are good and fit enough, you should play in every single game. What are your thoughts on R Ashwin as a bowler? Ashwin has always been world class and shown promise from the first game that he played. With an off-spinner that gets a lot of bounce because of his height, he gets a lot of sharp turn and he has got a good change-up of different balls too. He is an attacking bowler and he’s not like the traditional off-spin bowler who just throws the ball up and waits for the batsmen to make a mistake.
That’s obviously why he’s best in the world currently and he’s doing a very good job. What inputs will you be able to give the batsmen in your squad? It’s funny that people look at you and think you’re just a bowler. It’s not just those three styles of cricket (batting, bowling, fielding) that make up the game. It’s the whole mental side as well, the structure of the game, the team environment, having a good coach, respecting your captain, making sure that everyone is on the same page, making sure that they’re training hard etc.
I’ll be talking about training, approach to the game and if everyone knows their role in the game. It’s the whole package that makes a good team. What inputs will you give them to become mentally stronger? To me it’s about being confident. It’s about being very happy in your own environment and playing with freedom. If you can go out there and express yourself as an athlete at the top level in this domestic competition, if you can play with freedom then you often going to be more successful - that will be one of the things I will pass on to the team to play with freedom. What are your views about Mitchell Starc? The thing with Mitchell Starc is that he’s done well in one-day international cricket and T20 because he bowls with the white ball. He bowls extremely well with good pace, swings the ball in and has a great yorker. I want to see him take that aggression, control, experience and freedom of bowling into Test cricket.
It’s the same ball, just a different colour and it is also the same length of the pitch with three stumps. That’s what people sometimes get confused with Test cricket and ODI, you still have to bowl the same types of balls. A good yorker in Test cricket is a good yorker in T20 cricket as well.
A good length ball that is going to nick behind in ODIs is also going to get wickets in Test cricket. I want Mitchell Starc to go out there and approach bowling with freedom in Test cricket and to still bowl fast. Nowadays, a lot of pacers cut down on pace after getting injured. Your views. I did twelve operations and I never cut down my pace even once. If you are there to bowl fast, you are there to bowl fast, period. You try and hit your top speed every single time. Nothing excited me as running in and bowling at 130km per hour. If a biopic was made on you who would you like to see play Brett Lee? Probably, Leonardo di Caprio (laughter). Personally I probably wouldn’t want one on me. There’s one on (MS) Dhoni and Sachin (Tendulkar) coming out soon. I’ll be making sure I watch it because it will be exciting to see what these guys have gone through.
Everyone’s been on a journey through life and everyone has got a story to tell. I’m not really worried about my story at the moment. I’m really happy I did the movie UnIndian and it’s doing really well here. Why has Australia not been able to play good quality spin over the last few years? You have to play smart cricket. When it comes to your shot selection it’s very important. If you are getting out sweeping against the spin, you have to put that in the memory bank and say maybe that’s not the best option, I probably have to use my feet quicker.
Guys who have been very good playing spin from overseas have used their feet very well as opposed to playing the cross-bat shots.
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