Why didn't you come in so many press conferences? I was waiting (laughs). I feel all those questions are to take the focus away from the team. We don't believe in that. Because we have to go and play cricket ourselves. We can't think of external factors. We never do. Our aim is to win games of cricket anywhere and everywhere we play. We have shown that over the past one-and-a-half years. So we don't go out there to prove anything to anyone. That we have a challenging win and we have to win because people are asking questions. We are doing our job, people are doing theirs. That's how the balance goes. Its basically what you want to entertain and what you don't want to entertain. As simple as that. But when we go on to the pitch we have control of what we can achieve. We understand our abilities. We have enough belief in our abilities to play good cricket anywhere. Not putting pressure of winning on challenging wickets, but believing in ourselves to execute our plans to the best of our abilities.
Individual brilliance or such a win where everybody contributed in small ways?This one for sure. If all of your players perform, there is nothing like it. Because you don't want to sit in the change room and see a couple of sad faces, to be honest. When everyone contributes, it is a happy environment. People are happy about what they have done. People are happy about their contribution to the teams cause in a victory. This was a test match that had to be fought out which took character from all the players. This is a Test match that players took as an opportunity to build character rather than pressure. The more win Test matches like this, the more we understand how Test cricket is played, how Test matches can be won. So we can keep repeating those things. Its all about feeding those things into your head and keep repeating it. That's what consistency is. Obviously individual brilliance, one-odd game, someone will get a magnificent hundred in the fourth innings and win you the game. You'll feel very happy but as a captain I think this win is far more satisfying than individual brilliance winning you a game.
Principal gains from last two Tests
Gains, the way I see it, its been the batting contributions of Jadeja and Umesh Yadav a little bit in the first game Jadeja in both innings. And Wriddhiman Saha both innings in this game. The rest of the guys, we obviously understand that given their day and in a good frame of mind, they will come good. But these two guys are batting at positions that are very important in Test cricket. For them to understand their own abilities and get confident that was one of the main reasons why we waited for three more overs in Kanpur, to let Jadeja cross 50. Because that way you understand how to get to that again and again. If you declare on 45, he will never get that extra boost of having gotten a half-century in a Test match. So it was all about building confidence for a particular individual, because we understand how important his character can be in a situation where maybe you need to play out an hour or you need 40 quick runs again. And that is the guy who is confident and can do the job for you. So as a captain, I think the contribution by Jadeja in the first game and Saha here (were the main gains). Saha has been doing really well this year, I wish him well to keep going. Obviously a keeper coming good for you is an added bonus. So I feel these two have to be the biggest gains.
On getting to No.1 early in captaincy career..I mentioned this before also, rankings are something that are just an incentive for what you do on the field. I didn't even know how many points difference we had to get to No.1. We just want to win every game we play, its as simple as that. It doesn't mean that we take the foot off the pedal in Indore. We don't drop intensity there, we don't drop our character, our vision to win a Test match for the country. Its our responsibility to keep Test cricket where it belongs, and if we play cricket like this you saw how engaged the crowd was, they like to see exciting cricket, and we have to provide it. You have to interact with them, you have to make sure they are a part of the whole thing. You feed off their energy. It happens so much in limited overs, so why not in Test cricket? A challenging situation in Test cricket is the most exciting thing a viewer can see, and for a player playing as well, to feel. You can sense that energy which no other format can provide for you. We are just taking this as a privilege and a responsibility to keep doing what we can do, to the best of our abilities and hopefully get the right results every time it wont happen everytime we know. But at least we can try to win a game of cricket every time we step onto the field, that's all we think about.
Can you win in Australia and South Africa too?I think that's a pretty emotional question, to be honest. Because we have a long season ahead at home. We don't play any Test cricket away from home till end of next year. So for me to give you an answer to that is very difficult. I can tell you what I'm doing tomorrow. I'm not getting up at 6:30 AM. There's no alarm ringing on my phone. That's all I know about tomorrow. But on a serious note, yes as cricketer...for me it doesn't make a difference if I'm playing in England or I'm playing in India, Australia or in South Africa. If you want to win, you want to win. If you don't have the mindset to win, you're not going to win anywhere provided you're playing in your own backyard. So that's too far-fetched a question for me to give a concrete answer to.
When the time comes, as I said, we want to play well. We want to perform consistently. We want to keep winning as a team. But for me to commit to it, it's too big a risk at this stage. We'll prepare well. We'll obviously look to give our best. And whatever happens, we take it like men and we move forward.
Batting work behind the scenes in terms of dealing with variety of conditions..See, obviously you prepare for conditions but you don't want to get too much into conditions that you forget the mental set up, mental side of things. I think mental set-up is far more important. A person who is feeling positive and optimistic about playing on a certain kind of wicket, he'll get runs. A person who is thinking too much about conditions or 'what if the ball does this or the ball does that', he'll not get runs. So what we work on a daily basis is clarity of mind more than perfect bat position. Unless a person is getting out to the same thing again and again, that's a different story. But I think on a daily basis, if your game is pretty good, if you're striking the ball well you understand the mental side is far more important than the technical side of things.
And unless you are committing the same mistake consistently. So that's how the usual process goes and we all like challenges..
For the tail as well?Yeah. For the tail as well. It's very important to be clear. You can get a sense of the situation. if the other side is looking to save runs, then you as a tail you can collect a few more than you can get. But if they are putting pressure on you, then obviously you want to bat it out. So it's all about the make-up of the head. so we work on the mental set-up more than the technical side of things.
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