I remember my India teammate once told me, "Gauti, yeh Indian cricket hai…yahan sub kuch chappad phaad ke hota hai. Jab milta hai to bhi chappad phaad ke, jab jaata hai to bhi chappad phaad ke (Gauti, this is Indian cricket, here everything happens in big measure. When you get something, it is in big measure, when something is taken away from you, again it is in bulk).
The teammate who said this was going through a lean patch and I had become the only Indian to score 400 runs in three consecutive Test series. I smiled. He smiled. And, I knew what he meant. After losing two matches and a third being rained out, we are out of the series. I personally did not set the stage on fire. My learned teammate sent me the same text two nights ago.
I think we were in control last night before weather predictions came true. Standing in the middle, I was saying, “no, this can't be true”. Sadly it was. As rain picked up intensity, our ouster from the CLT20 became imminent. I don't think we can blame the weather for this. We just didn't hit the ground running and squandered a brilliant opportunity to show the world that we are an all-round outfit.
Stunning silence
As a leader, I can sense numbness in the camp. Yusuf Pathan is trying to make a comeback, L Balaji is trying to cement his place, Iqbal Abdulla has to break through, Manvinder Bisla and Rajat Bhatia had so much to prove. One good session in either of the two earlier games and we would have arrested the slide. But it wasn't to be. I remember I was in class 8th and worked really hard before my mathematics examinations. It was my final exam and I really wanted to do well. Guess what happened? I fell ill and barely managed to write my exam. Final score: Not worth mentioning here, though I scraped through!
I give this example here because our group really worked hard for this tournament and wanted to do well. They came early and I was in touch with our coaching staff. The training sessions at Potchesfroom were good and except for Lakshmi Ratan Shukla, we had all our personnel.
Stunning silence
As a leader, I can sense numbness in the camp. Yusuf Pathan is trying to make a comeback, L Balaji is trying to cement his place, Iqbal Abdulla has to break through, Manvinder Bisla and Rajat Bhatia had so much to prove. One good session in either of the two earlier games and we would have arrested the slide. But it wasn't to be. I remember I was in class 8th and worked really hard before my mathematics examinations. It was my final exam and I really wanted to do well. Guess what happened? I fell ill and barely managed to write my exam. Final score: Not worth mentioning here, though I scraped through!
I give this example here because our group really worked hard for this tournament and wanted to do well. They came early and I was in touch with our coaching staff. The training sessions at Potchesfroom were good and except for Lakshmi Ratan Shukla, we had all our personnel.
Final encounter
Now we are going back to Cape Town. It is funny that we cricketers take long to come out of the rut, at least I do. It is such a beautiful country and there is so much to do, but I am too demanding of myself. In this mood, I love to train and practice. So, before taking the flight to Cape Town, it was a time well spent in the gym and then hitting a few cricket balls in the nets. We need to do well in the final encounter, as I am absolutely sure that we are a much better team than what the points table suggests.
By the way, my learned India teammate is doing quite well these days. And, therefore, he knows what he is saying.
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The writer is the captain of KKR