Mohammed Siraj needs to be himself, don't need him to replace Shami: Shubman Gill

India Today

Gujarat Titans Shubman Gill said that Mohammed Siraj is not here to replace Mohammed Shami in the line-up. The GT captain argued that Siraj needs to be true to his identity.

Transcript

00:00Sir, new I think, except for the great players that we have added in this team, I don't think

00:07there is anything new formula or anything as such.

00:10I think I spoke about in the previous PCA as well that we are the team with the highest

00:16win percentage in the past three years, so I don't think we need to change anything.

00:20New management also, I am saying.

00:23Most of the management is the same, yes, Parthibhai is there, Vedhi has been with us for the past

00:29three years and he is added as a support staff, so I don't think there is anything new as

00:34such.

00:35Owners are new, no?

00:37Sorry?

00:38Owners are new?

00:40I haven't had much chance to be able to speak with them, but I think that's a good thing,

00:46because if there was anything new, I must have had a reason to talk to them.

00:50But because I haven't face-to-face spoken with them yet, so I think that's a good thing.

00:59And any injuries and availability, anything you can tell us?

01:02No, I think we are all good, there are no injuries.

01:07Shobhan, the presence of Josh Butler, of course, adds a lot of depth to the batting.

01:13If you could just take us through what's the, you know, in the group matches that you have

01:18had, do you think that the addition of Josh actually, you know, do you see as a problem

01:24of plenty in the opening slot or do you think that that's actually something that you had

01:29an experience of you and him opening together, what's the scene like?

01:33Sir, I mean, if you have someone like Josh Butler in your team, no team would think of

01:38it as a problem.

01:39Firstly, he's a, we've all seen what he has done in T20 cricket for England and in IPL.

01:48And I think in the previous series, he batted at number three, so I don't think there is

01:54any problem with him about batting at different numbers.

01:58Having said that, we haven't decided at which number he'll bat, maybe we'll get to know

02:02about it tomorrow during the match.

02:05But over the course of, I think, eight, nine years that he's played IPL, he's played at

02:10different numbers and he's performed at different numbers.

02:13So I don't see that as a problem for us.

02:18So that's the point of having auction every three years, right?

02:21You kind of have different teammates and coming to the opponent, I mean, them as a team, they

02:32are playing together for the first time, but we have played those plays, we have played

02:36against them or with them at some point in our career.

02:39So the skill set that they bring to the table isn't anything new.

02:47Of course, you can talk about different combinations and all those things, but we have played against

02:54those players, so in terms of their skill set, there isn't like anything new or anything

02:59that we don't know.

03:05There have been questions about the batting, especially talking about the last season also.

03:10The batting at the depth was a bit of concern with you guys.

03:14I'm sure you must have solved it, but you have lots many players.

03:17But what do you think, because last time it was an average of 27.8 in the power play,

03:22losing 15 wickets in around about 14 matches.

03:26You have Arshdeep on the other side also, who is very good at picking wickets, especially

03:30in the power play.

03:31How do you counter this, if at all you have a strategy for that tomorrow?

03:36Honestly, yes, we didn't.

03:41We were in the best team in the tournament last year in the power play, but before that

03:46I think, even I think last year as well, we had some good partnerships opening with me

03:54and Sai.

03:56But having said that, you know, Shami got injured in between.

04:00It's not easy to have so many different combinations when your players are getting injured constantly

04:10and leading up to that obviously someone like Hardik bhai went to MI.

04:15So just I think in overall sense it was a bit tough for us to find the perfect combination

04:23as a team and I think this year we have a fantastic group.

04:26I feel we have covered all the bases, we have good depth in the batting, we have some very

04:32good bowlers, especially fast bowlers.

04:35I think IPL is a kind of a tournament, everybody really focuses on scoring 250, 260, 270, but

04:40I think it's the bowlers that win you matches.

04:43It's the bowlers that would help you not concede those many runs.

04:48Doesn't matter how many runs you score, if you are able to concede those, then it doesn't

04:53matter how many runs you are scoring.

04:56The focus is more, especially for us, our philosophy is to have a really strong and

05:01stable bowling side.

05:04Hopefully, we are hoping that we will be able to play the same bowling attack for the

05:0814 games, but if anything happens, we have a good backup as well.

05:11I think we have got Ishibhai, I don't need to say much about him, he has been playing

05:16IPL since the inception of IPL, I think, and he has got great experience to him and I think

05:24we have got some really good young bowlers in our team as well.

05:27Last season was your first as a captain of course and this time, what did you learn from

05:33any particular aspect, when you look back, do you think that you learnt something from

05:37last year that you would want to implement this time around, one particular thing?

05:42Last year was definitely a learning curve for me and I think captaincy is such a thing,

05:49the more you do it, the more you learn about yourself and the more you learn about the

05:53game and there were some aspects that I definitely learnt and experienced last year which I think

05:59would be very helpful for me this year.

06:04It's difficult to point one thing in particular, it's like an overall growth that I would

06:14want to have within myself as a captain, maybe it could be talking with the players off the

06:18field or it could be anything, having those one-on-one conversations with them where they

06:24open up to you, where they tell you what are the areas that they want to improve or what

06:30are the areas that I want them to be able to improve to help my team.

06:35Talking about toss, how do you think the dew factor is going to play, if you have a look

06:43at the ground also, what are your thoughts on that and secondly, home record pressure,

06:47is it something which you have on the back of your mind because you have seen your home

06:52wins fell from 3 to 7 last season and Punjab have managed to chase I think once or twice

06:58if I am not wrong against you.

07:00So keeping the dew factor into consideration, how are you planning things to go sir?

07:05It's not easy when the dew comes for sure, not easy to bowl when there is dew but I think

07:12with the new rule coming in, the captains are allowed to change the ball once after

07:1711 overs, it might be of help but like I said it's not, on grounds we have seen like in

07:25Wankhede, you would see even if there are some early wickets in the 2nd innings, teams

07:31are chasing 2-10, 2-15, 2-20, it's not easy to bowl with the dew, spinners I think their

07:37effectiveness gets lessened with the dew because obviously with the ball being wet, it's not

07:43easy for them to get the grip on the ball but I think having said that, this rule might

07:50help us, I think we will get to know once we play more matches on the dew especially

07:55here we have seen chasing is, any ground, any team if they win the toss, they are looking

08:01to bowl first because I think there is a reason it's easier to chase if at all there is any

08:05dew on any ground.

08:08Do you derive confidence from that and cheap into another tournament or do you consciously

08:13draw a line between the two tournaments to start afresh?

08:16It definitely gives you lot of confidence because ICC tournaments or ICC trophies are

08:23one thing that you grow up idolising or that you grow up inspiring from and having won

08:32an ICC trophy definitely gives you lot of confidence but IPL is quite different from

08:39Champions Trophy, it's a different format, a different concept in itself and you can

08:45drive as much as confidence you want from that but this is a different game.

08:51Siraj, for Mohamed Shami, you think the ideal replacement and last two days you must have

08:59practised, did you experience any dew?

09:02Yes, there was a bit of dew here, I think even as the games would go on we might see

09:10some games without dew, I mean the groundsmen and the ground people they try to do their

09:16job, they try to reduce the dew as much as possible but sometimes they can't control

09:21it because it's so much and sometimes it's not there and coming back to your question,

09:26I think every player is different, we can't expect players to perform like someone else,

09:32every player brings a different skill set and a different combination to the team but

09:37at the end of the day a bowler or a fast bowler who is bowling in the powerplay, their purpose

09:42is the same to get wickets, so we are not trying to replace Shami Bhai, we are not trying

09:49to compare any players, we just want Mohamed Siraj to be himself.

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