Grant Bradburn & Naveed Nawaz speak ahead of Pakistan v Sri Lanka in ICC Cricket World Cup 2023

Grant Bradburn & Naveed Nawaz speak ahead of Pakistan v Sri Lanka in ICC Cricket World Cup 2023.

[Reporter:]

From your previous performance you've spoken about even in victories you'll look at aspects that didn't go well. And there were certain points in the game where Netherlands were ahead of Pakistan. So, what have you all assessed as the drawbacks of, I mean, currently things that are not working out for the team?

[Grant Bradburn:]

Oh, look, we're focusing on what's working, not so much what's not working. And as you know, as we spoke earlier, we're becoming confident as a group and as a coaching staff. We're very keen on critiquing our performance, especially when we win. Not only when we lose, which is obviously common, but we're really searching for our formula and what happens consistently, what are the trends when Pakistan wins games of cricket.

So those are the things that, the little battles if you like, that we identify, the process of winning rather than just looking at the game in its entirety.

We certainly break the game down into the key aspects. But we're well aware that the first phase of our batting is not clicking as yet, which we think is a good thing, in a way, because we have full trust in all of the guys who are capable at batting within the Powerplay. And they've done it before, over perhaps the last period between World Cups, the top three have scored the majority of our runs, which maybe is detrimental to other parts of our game.

So, look, we've got full faith in our top order. They will click at some stage. And we're open and honest to say that we're not getting what we would like out of the Powerplay as yet. But we're certainly very happy with other phases of our game which have kicked into gear and did enough the other night to get over the line and create a W, create two points for us coming out of that dressing room which was the ultimate goal.

[Reporter:]

What kind of a character is Hasan Ali in the dressing room?

[Grant Bradburn:]

Hasan is a ball of energy. He's a fantastic re-edition, if you like, to our team.

Look, everyone knows that Hasan came in on the back of Nazim Shah's injury. We miss Nazim dearly. Our heart is with him and we know that his heart is with us as well. We've been keeping in touch with him over recent times, and he's a big loss for us. But to be able to add someone like Hassan Ali into the mix is such an asset to us. He's a great resource in all three departments of the game and I would say four departments because he's you know such a positive team man off the park as well.

He bats, he bowls, he fields and he's a live wire in the dressing room always full of positivity. So, you know we certainly are lucky to have someone like him to step in.

[Reporter:]

I was there at the Gymkhana ground for training. I saw quite a few players missing so first part of the question is - Was this an optional training session and is it like all the players are available because Shaheen, Imam, Rizwan, all of them were not there?

[Grant Bradburn:]

Yeah, look we trained at Gymkhana today which firstly was excellent, really good facilities there, very welcoming for us to train there, it was a great opportunity. And look, our trust, our full trust is with our players in terms of understanding exactly what they need, especially the day before a game, to top off their training, to top up their training rather, and just prepare themselves mentally and physically to put in what we want on the park, which is commanding performances.

We want our players to produce impact performances. It's not about them individually anymore. It's about us as a team. It's about us extracting another two points tomorrow. And that's our sole mission. We put full faith in the players to know exactly what they need to do to prepare. And some have chosen to prepare in other ways other than taking more energy out of their bodies today.

So, from a coaching point of view, I'm very, very happy with that.

[Reporter:]

Sir, though you have Sri Lanka to play tomorrow's match, but already there is a lot of buzz regarding India and Pakistan.

We have October 14th match. India has started the campaign very well. So is Pakistan. But are you feeling the buzz, I mean, feeling the pulse from now on?

[Grant Bradburn:]

Look, you know, I think as a whole group, we're really excited to be here. Everyone knows that Mohamed Nawaz was the only one that's played in India previously. So, it's been a wonderful two weeks for our players to get their feet on the ground. There's been lots of excitement. Early on, from our training point of view there was lots of energy and excitement to get the pads on, to get into the nets and to get into action on Indian soil. The facilities here are excellent so everyone's been wanting to train. But as a coaching group of course we've got to balance that because number one - we want our tanks full of energy for game day. And we're trying to wean our players off from comfort training and we want them really to have all aspects of their training to be done with purpose in relation to their clear individual roles and our clear game roles.

Number one, we're really excited to be here and every game for us on Indian soil, even the practice games, it's been wonderful to get out there and allow our boys to just get a sense of what it's like to play here.

It's fair to say we've really enjoyed the conditions so far. They've been subtly different on all of the pitches we've played. The training facilities have been wonderful. And look, our guys, both batting and bowling, are really enjoying what the pitches here have to offer.

So yeah, we're really enjoying every moment of the two weeks so far, both on and off the field. But of course, we're excited to be moving forward in this competition. We're looking forward to going to new venues, we're looking forward to playing all opposition and really hoping that you know we can get into a stage where all six phases of our game are coming together and we can show the fans here and our fans at home what amazing skills this group has and really put together some performances and get on a roll.

So, we're looking forward to every aspect of this tour.

[Reporter:]

So, you had the luxury of playing here earlier in the first game, but Sri Lanka didn't have a chance to play here yet, and they haven't even seen the pitch conditions over here. So that obviously will be a plus factor for you, but in the recent past Sri Lanka have had the better of Pakistan in the bilateral series and wherever they played. So how does it affect the team and how is the preparation to stop that streak?

[Grant Bradburn:]

Yeah, look, we're really looking forward to playing Sri Lanka. They're a team that we've become familiar with over recent times, obviously with the Asia Cup, and we know well that they have had the upper hand on us over the last year in white-ball cricket.

But we know their players very, very well. We have a secret weapon, if you like, in Mickey Arthur, who has coached them before. So, our scouting meetings this morning and our video meetings this morning, Mickey was a very, very handy addition to those meetings to be able to add in some intricate points around their batters and bowlers.

So, we respect all opposition. We respect the skills that Sri Lanka possess. And we're really looking forward to taking them on tomorrow. I guess, the priority has been around our game and just making sure that we're training specifically, we're preparing specifically, and we're coming together as a group to really understand what our performance is about.

We've worked hard on gaining some absolute crystal clarity around what we're trying to do as a unit to win games of cricket, what the process of that is, what the little battles are along the way to win. And together with that, we've also worked very, very hard on giving each of our players absolute clarity of their individual roles within that.

So, it's now not about individuals, it's now about the group and I'm really excited just sensing that this group is starting to come together really nicely, not only on the park, not only in training, but just as a group.

I think there's a wonderful respect for each other and there's a wonderful confidence brewing in their own skills.

We haven't put our best on the park yet. We haven't put a complete performance on the park as yet. But as I mentioned before, we sense that that's not a bad thing, because we know at some stage that'll come. And if we just got to head down, we're working hard every day just to keep improving every day.

[Reporter:]

This is going to be your fourth game at this venue, including the warm-ups. So, what has been your biggest takeaway from the conditions that have been on offer here, in terms of what you expected and how they turned out to be? And do you think it will give you an edge over Sri Lanka tomorrow?

[Grant Bradburn:]

Yeah, these conditions are foreign for the players, especially, but for us coaches you know, we've had a little bit of experience in Indian conditions, and we certainly have used all of our contacts to scout the facilities as much as we can. The ground staff here have been amazing. They've been very, very good in giving us some information.

But also, we've looked hard at the domestic performances here and the few internationals that had gone before so we've done our homework, we know what the conditions are likely to do and our players are certainly enjoying these conditions. They're equivalent if you like of some of the better conditions at home in Pakistan. From a batting and bowling point of view, you know they're offering a little bit for everyone. Out here we've seen, you know we're understanding the difference in plays and we've seen out of the you know three games we've had, all three wickets have performed slightly differently.

We're well aware of what tomorrow's wicket should do. But we're trying to not overplay that as well, because the conditions are the conditions. And It's really about us bringing a determination for 11 players to play a winning impact in the game or winning impacts throughout the game. So, that's our real focus.

[Reporter:]

[inaudible question] What's your take on this?

[Grant Bradburn:]

No, it's something, look, during the Afghanistan series and the Asia Cup, we felt, we really [felt] like number one, we really wanted to give our own players absolute clarity and confidence of the team we were playing. So, we felt it was right to put it out.

And through nothing else other than, look, we're well aware that due to the conditions and due to the fact that we're very confident in playing all 15 of our players. So, within that 15, there's a number of different combinations. So, we're very, very happy that we're able to, and one of our desires, too, is to be less one-dimensional, if you like. Pakistan are renowned for our quick bowlers and winning games of cricket with our pace. But you're also seeing maybe some surprises to some in the middle order. We've got some dynamic players throughout the team and we want to be showing that we can win games of cricket in multiple ways.

So, with that, we've got a number of combinations that we can put out. We can play four seamers. We can play three genuine spinners and a part-time spinner. We've got five spin options, really, should I say, not half.

So, with that, we think we should just announce the team in a traditional way.

[Reporter:]

Pakistan's openers is not in the best forms. Especially Fakhar is not giving, he's not making runs. Is there any going to be change in the tomorrow's game for Pakistan?

[Grant Bradburn:]

Okay, as I said before we're not getting what we would like to get out of our Powerplay but fortunately, we also we look at it as six phases of the game. There's the Powerplay, the mid phase, and the close, obviously, in both innings. So, our simple focus is to win more of those phases than the opposition, and you generally win the game.

So, while it's clear to see that we haven't been getting the dynamic results out of our batting Powerplay that we would like, our full faith is with all of our players that could take up that position. We've got four to five options that we could put out at the top of the order and we'd be very confident that they can deliver not only the runs but the tempo that we want to play at. We want to create a tempo for the middle order and the back end of our innings to build from. We're not getting that at the moment, so those are discussions that we're having, but we've got full faith in all of our options at the top.

[Reporter:]

It was a tough day for the fast bowlers in the first match. How do you motivate this young unit - we have a game against Pakistan tomorrow. How are you going to motivate these young bowlers?

[Naveed Nawaz:]

Well, it's simple. They got to think about - we expect to face similar pitches in India and it's not going to change much. It's going to be batting-friendly pitches mostly. So, we've got to look at the execution in the game against South Africa and how we could have pulled back probably another 50 – 60 runs and then see what we could have done better which we have already done and then keep the group positive is the most important because it's a long tournament. You're going to be playing, traveling, and doing so many other things for over a month. So, it's very important to keep everyone positive and you're learning each game and move forward. That's simple as that, I guess.

[Reporter:]

How do you rate the batting performance after conceding so many runs? I think we passed the 300-run mark as well. How do you rate the batting performance? And also, a word on Theekshana’s availability and his inclusion to the team for the game?

[Naveed Nawaz:]

Well, when you're chasing a total of 420, I guess there's no confusion there that we needed to go hard at it. We just wanted two or three guys to go big. That's the only thing we were looking at, the guys who got runs, especially Kusal, Charith, maybe Dasun, had they gone for a little bit longer, maybe another extra 30, 40 runs by each one of them, could have got us close.

No guarantees when you're chasing a score like 420, but of course, we knew which direction we had to go and the intent was quite positive.

And we are quite happy as a group of how they went about and I think throughout the tournament that's our goal is to maintain the tempo and play positive cricket and post a challenge to every team that we play.

Theekshana’s - I think he should be available for this game. Obviously, we didn't want to take a risk with him in the first game and didn't want to go against the advice of the medicals so I'm sure he'll be available for this one.

[Reporter]

Navin, after a match like that, what kind of guidance do you give to our young bowlers and fast bowlers in the attack as coaching staff? Especially when there's a small gap before the next match, and both the bowlers' unit and batsmen have underperformed. What have you done about it so far?

[Naved Nawaz]

Most of the time, as I answered the previous question, we focus on fixing mistakes in execution and analyzing them. This includes delivering overs, facing aggressive batsmen, employing slower ball variations, executing yorkers, and unleashing bouncers. Furthermore, the Delhi ground has short boundaries on one side and longer boundaries on the opposite side. We've discussed how to strategically leverage these elements, as we don't have time to go back to the ground and train. I believe we've succeeded in these aspects. Going forward, I'm considering their mindset and how they can adapt to changing conditions and opponent strengths and weaknesses. They need to bowl alongside players with diverse strengths and adapt their plans based on their fellow players' abilities that day. Plans change from match to match, so execution is crucial. If the execution rate isn't satisfactory, our coaching staff will discuss ways to improve it for the next game. If any player identifies a problem and wants to practice, we'll make the necessary arrangements.

[Reporter:]

Compared to Delhi this is a much bigger ground but the wickets will have bounce and pace. So how are you looking at your pace bowlers, how will they adjust to Pakistan and how do you look to Pakistan as an opponent in this tournament?

[Naveed Nawaz:]

I think Pakistan is quite a strong opposition. The only advantage that we have is that we have been playing Pakistan recently in the Asia Cup as well, so both teams know quite well about each team's strengths, weaknesses, whatever it may be.

I think it's going to be a good tussle. The boundaries are slightly longer than Delhi. I think it will be at least about 65 metres all around the ground. The wickets have been good in Hyderabad. It has produced runs. There is a bit of bounce and it's good for batting, I guess. So, I think it's going to be a good game and two good teams playing each other. It's a challenge for our boys as well. Against South Africa we had quite a good game with a lot of runs in Delhi so we are having a bit of confidence on our backs, so I guess it's going to be a good one, good game to watch, I think.

[Reporter:]

You are as a batting coach in the side you must be really happy how Kusal Mendis played that innings in Delhi. Can you run us through how he played that innings and all that. What are your thoughts?

[Naveed Nawaz:]

Yeah, I think this is where he has to come into because when a player like Kusal who's playing all three formats, he's got to have a very clear mind, okay, how am I going to play in Test cricket, how am I going to play, what is my approach when it comes to ODI cricket and what is my approach when it comes to T20s.

So, I think he's learning, he's learning and he's adjusting with experience. He's had a bad run not so long ago and after closer to Asia Cup, he started scoring runs again and then continuously putting runs on the board.

I think way to go for Kusal is the aggressive option. He needs to be positive; he needs to be looking for runs every time and he's been successful playing like that and I guess he should continue to play like that.

[Reporter:]

You should be happy with the captain's return to form, Shanaka, your captain.

[Naveed Nawaz:]

Oh, yes, that has been a worry for all of us that Dasun was not among the runs and he's had a couple of injury scares as well. As a group, we are very pleased that, that he's scored runs and he's getting better with his tennis elbow as well

[Reporter:]

Having said that your team is going to meet batsman-friendly wickets. So do you think that you're missing the trick somewhere that your bowlers are not up to much because they have given away so much of runs. Is it that you are going to look for containment or you are trying to make your bowlers go for wickets so that you can bring down the runs?

[Naveed Nawaz:]

Well, we have in our bowling attack, we have a couple of bowlers which we have identified who are going to go for wickets. We have to do that because the name of this game is wickets. Because when you are playing on a small outfield and when you are playing on a good batting surface, if you don't take wickets, you're going to end up with a 400 runs. That's a no-brainer.

So, somebody will have to come up and know how to take wickets up front and take wickets in the middle as well. So, I think we have a plan under our belt for that. And about Mahesh Theekshana’s coming in, I think our bowling attack is going to be a little bit stronger as well. So, we'll have a plan up front to take wickets and that's the only way I think of containment. If you don't take wickets, it's going to be very difficult to contain.

[Reporter:]

A word on Dunith Wellalage, he was basically the frontline spinner in the Delhi game as a young player coming off from a very successful Asia Cup. How is he handling it and also if Theekshana’s is coming into the side, what will be the complexion of the bowling unit for tomorrow's game?

[Naveed Nawaz:]

Well, I think suddenly, due to the loss of Vanindu and Mahesh, Dunith had to face a lot of responsibilities. Suddenly he's been pushed up as the main bowler in the last couple of games during the Asia Cup, as well as the first game. So, I think he's reacted excellently to that responsibility. He's done well in a couple of games in Asia Cup and even on a batting friendly track in Delhi I thought he bowled reasonably well.

It's a game of learning so he's learning and he's moving forward so we are happy with that.

I think with the team combination, when Mahesh comes in, we'll take a call once we have a look at the wicket.

So, we'll probably have a couple of players in mind and then have a look at the wicket. Because we were training outside Hyderabad ground today as well, so we never got an opportunity to look at how the pitch looks like. So probably we'll have a look at the wicket and make a call on that.

[Reporter]

You've mentioned that you see Kusal Mendis as an aggressive option and Kusal Perera as a key player in your batting plans. What advice did you give him when he joined the team, and what do you think about his role?

[Naveed Nawaz:]

Everyone knows who Kusal Perera is, so I don't think I need to elaborate on his playing style. In my opinion, asking him to play differently would be a waste of his talents. We've given him the green light to play his natural game, and we have no doubts about this approach.

[Reporter]

We noticed some stability from the opening batsmen during the World Cup Qualifier, but that hasn't been the case in the Asia Cup or the first match of this tournament. What are the team's thoughts on this, and how do you plan to address it?

[Naveed Nawaz:]

When we're close to a World Cup, making numerous substitutions is risky. For example, we replaced Dimuth Karunaratne in the World Cup Qualifier to add experience to the lineup. The plan worked. However, we faced additional pressure as Kusal Janith was injured and couldn't play. We were considering giving him that spot if he recovered in time. Since he wasn't available, our next thought was to either bring in another experienced player or consider introducing a new player. The stakes were high in the World Cup Qualifier; even losing one game could have cost us a spot in the World Cup.