Hashmatullah Shahidi & Vikram Rathour speak ahead of India v Afghanistan in ICC Cricket World Cup 2023
Hashmatullah Shahidi & Vikram Rathour speak ahead of India v Afghanistan in ICC Cricket World Cup 2023.
[Reporter:]
Winning start and you are taking on an unpredictable Afghanistan team, what is the thing that you have to worry about?
[Vikram Rathour:]
Just looking to focus on the process. That is the message that has been given to the team again and again that we just look to play our game well, we just look to do our things right and I am sure we have the team with the results. If we do our things right, the results will be taken care of. So that is what the focus is on.
[Reporter:]
Any update on Shubman Gill? There was news item that he was hospitalized and then he has been brought back to the hotel and the platellete is good, bad, or ugly or whether he is going to be rested for the next match, I mean tomorrow or even against Pakistan. Any update please?
[Vikram Rathour:]
He is recovering well. He was hospitalized, yes, but that was more as a precaution. He is back in the hotel; he is recovering well. So, being monitored by the medical team and whatever update we get, we are hoping that he will recover pretty soon. He is looking good actually.
[Reporter:]
Hotel in Chennai?
[Vikram Rathour:]
In Chennai.
[Reporter:]
[inaudible question]
[Vikram Rathour:]
[Hindi]
We have a very experienced batting unit at the moment. I don't think that message is required. Everyone knows how they have to play in this format. We have a very settled batting unit at the moment. Everyone has their own way. We are giving them the freedom to play the way they want to play. And we understand that everybody has a different way of playing. But everyone has their own way of playing and we have the trust that if they play and back themselves, we will achieve what we are looking to achieve.
[Reporter:]
Last match here, 700 or more runs were scored. So, it was completely different from Chennai wicket. So, any change in combination, especially in the bowling department, where you might not play three spinners this time?
[Vikram Rathour:]
We’ve just come. Captain and coach are there. I think they'll look at the wicket, they'll assess the surface and then decide. I haven't been, we haven't had any discussion on that yet.
[Reporter:]
If you could just talk about your discussions with Ishaan Kishan now because he will be playing a different role, what he was kind of expected to play with Gill, occupying that opener spot. So, what have your conversations with Ishan been like because he is going to play a very crucial role in the next game now?
[Vikram Rathour:]
No, he has opened in the past and he has played as an opener. So, no specific discussion on that. He understands the moment. That was the reason he has been in the team. We knew that he can bat top of the order or in the middle order. So, he has done that before. So, no specific discussion on that. Just hoping that he comes good tomorrow.
[Reporter:]
You always say that every game is important against every team, which is also true. But which player in Afghanistan needs special preparation, whether it is bowling or batting?
[Vikram Rathour:]
Again, we are not preparing based on a specific player. We are preparing ourselves. And we are ready for every situation or any conditions that we get. So, every player is important again. So, some day someone will do good bowling - Whatever comes our way.
[Reporter:]
Though Indian team is favourite one for winning the World Cup, but there are players in Afghan sides who have changed in past the games, such as Rashid Khan, Mujeeb, Nabi and others. Is there any thinking that they might bring some sort of change here in their favour?
[Vikram Rathour:]
As I said earlier, we’re not looking at players names, we are looking to do our things right, we are trying to focus on the process and we have the belief that the team that we have, if we can do our things right and just focus on the process and not worry on the result, we’ll achieve what we are trying to achieve. At the moment also we are looking to play good cricket and hoping that if we do that, everything will be fine.
[Reporter:]
The way KL Rahul and Virat Kohli are playing with each other - Is there a temptation to play KL Rahul not at number 5 but maybe number 4?
[Vikram Rathour:]
No, not at the moment because he is doing so well at number 5 and Shreyas has done really well for us at number 4. So absolutely no temptations.
[Reporter:]
There is a lot of talk about Surya. Can we see him in the next 2-3 matches?
Or is it a set combination and the Indian team will go with him?
[Vikram Rathour:]
Whoever is being given the opportunity, I think the belief of team management is that he should get proper opportunity. We need to back everyone. Whoever is playing should get enough opportunity. And if there is a situation where we feel that Surya should be brought in, again he has been batting really well. He has been playing well, he is preparing well. So, if we feel that Surya should be brought in, we will definitely play him.
[Reporter:]
Do you plan a campaign when you have teams like Afghanistan and Netherlands, do you go for net run rate or anything? Do you try to change your game plan, batting order, the style of play according to the team?
[Vikram Rathour:]
Not really, this is a very premature question. We don't know how tomorrow is going to be, how the wicket will play and what the situation will be. So, I don't think it's possible to answer that question. But we look to do the best we can. If we bat first, we look to put up as many runs as possible and if we bowl first, we'll try and get them out as early as possible.
[Reporter:]
Since the tournament is a bit long and we have to play more matches, we are getting different wickets at different places. Do you feel that it is a bit tricky and challenging to find out your combination and then set your 11.
[Vikram Rathour:]
I think that is the biggest advantage we have. We have the personnel to play on different surfaces. We can, everybody, we can go with three seamers, we can go with all-rounders, we have three very good spinners in the team and we have the batting unit which can adapt and play in any condition. So, at the moment I think we are doing well as far as the team is concerned, everybody is fit. Hopefully Gill will be back in the mix pretty soon.
So, no concerns. We understand it's nine different venues, nine different wickets. But the strength of this team is adaptability. I think we can adapt really well.
[Reporter:]
You spoke about making a statement with the bat at the captains meet in Ahmedabad? So, it didn't go well in the first match. What should you be doing and how difficult is it going to be?
[Hashmatullah Shahidi:]
Yes, I made a statement at the beginning that we will play good cricket as a batting side. We have a good spin bowling attack, but only one department can't win you games. You have to score runs for that, to win the game. Also in Bangladesh game, I know we didn't do well batting, but we still believe, I still believe and as a team we have that belief that we can come back in the next game and throughout the tournament, so the belief is there and the talent is there and we will try to move on and make it better and improve in tomorrow's game.
[Reporter:]
Playing a host nation especially India, in front of the Indian crowd, what have you told your players in how to go about it, especially in a World Cup?
[Hashmatullah Shahidi:]
When it's the opposition's home, there will be crowd pressure. Especially in India, there are a lot of expectations that the stadium will be packed but as a team our talks are like we have to make these things simple, and we are used to full stadiums - before also we played in Bangladesh and other countries with fully-backed opposition. We should not worry as players about those things. We have to keep it simple and we need to focus on our own game and try to deliver our own game tomorrow.
[Reporter:]
How has it been working with Ajay Jadeja so far and what kind of inputs is he bringing on the table. What do you guys talk about with him, is it more batting, bowling, match mindset, so how has the experience been working with him?
[Hashmatullah Shahidi:]
It's good because he has a lot of experience of international cricket and experience of the same conditions, Indian conditions also. So as a mentor, he always talks about how to deal with pressure, how to play against these teams. It's not about too much technique, because he just came to the team and he can't work with the techniques of batting, bowling stuff. He just tries to give us talks about mental and how to deal with this kind of team. Yeah, so it's working well.
[Reporter:]
You just said that even you can't just win the games on the basis of spin, but even in the spin department, if you see Rashid, teams tend to take a safer route against him – especially in the 50-over format compared to T20s. So, has there been any conversation on that because he is your trump card?
[Hashmatullah Shahidi:]
See, Rashid is the best bowler in ODI and T20s, so whatever opposition is doing, we don't care about that, like how they play, they want to play Rashid, but for us the important thing is how he has planned against the opposition. So that matters for us.
[Reporter:]
Just to add to that, Rashid hasn't played a lot of 50-over cricket against the top teams, if you look at his record, is that something that is a concern at all, like what sort of impact do you expect him to have against India for example?
[Hashmatullah Shahidi:]
See, like right now he played a lot in ODIs, like currently we are playing over the last six months we play ODIs so he knows how to bowl and he knows how to bowl to every team. He has the quality and whenever it's his day he can do anything against the opposition, so we are expecting and we are hopeful that he delivers in tomorrow's game.
[Reporter:]
[inaudible question]
[Hashmatullah Shahidi:]
Yeah, I have told this at the beginning also. So, we lost the first game against Bangladesh. And it doesn't mean that we are not a good team. We still have the belief and our statement is the same. We are here to make this World Cup historic for our country and to show to the world. Because in series, if you do well against opposition, good teams, that also matters.
But in events like World Cup, big events, if you beat any team, that's like better than a series. We are here to play positive cricket and give a statement that we can do well, and also our aim and goal as a team is to achieve a lot in this World Cup because we still have eight games.
[Reporter:]
[inaudible question]
[Hashmatullah Shahidi:]
Do you want me to share that with you? Yeah, we play better spinners in the net sessions. Like if you see Rashid, Nabi, Noor and Mujeeb, we play them every day. So, I think our team is far better in playing spin bowling. So that game you know we struggle but you can't say that you are not good enough on one game. So that game is gone now and we know we can play spinners better and we will try to come back in next game in every department.
[Reporter:]
This is a long tournament where when you lose multiple games you can go on a roll and get stuck in the middle. So as a captain how important is it for you and the team to get the first win out of the way so that you can play with the confidence from there?
[Hashmatullah Shahidi:]
See this is important as a team, the important thing is when you lose how to deal with that situation - for me and for everyone it's the important thing. But still, it's a long tournament we have eight more games, so when you lose if you go down, then that will affect your other games. So as a team, that game is gone from us. Now we are thinking and moving forward and the morale is still not down and we are looking forward to the other games. We have chances to win and that's inside the dressing room.
[Reporter:]
Afghanistan cricket has evolved very quickly over the last 7-8 years and you have a very special connection with India. It was a home base for your team as well. Many of the players have grown up idealising the Indian superstars here, even they have played in IPLs. How much do you talk about not getting over-awed by these Indian players or not getting star-struck here, especially given what happened between Navin and Virat?
[Hashmatullah Shahidi:]
See, as you mentioned before also, like India is our home, it was our home, we played here and the people of India give a lot of love to Afghanistan people. And what happened in the ground, that aggression comes to every player, it's not about India and Afghanistan. So, it can come to everyone. So, this happened and still like if you see a lot of our players, we have idols from Indian team like Tendulkar and Rahul Dravid. So, there’s not any concern about that.
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