Greg Chappell stresses on the need for India to stay mentally positive. "We have to play our normal cricket, not allow the situations to get the better of us," he says in a chat with S. Dinakar.
Despite a hectic schedule on the day the Indian cricket team departed for the Caribbean from Mumbai, coach Greg Chappell took some time out for a telephonic conversation with Sportstar. He was upbeat about India's chances in the World Cup.
Question: What is the one quality you believe is essential for India to win the World Cup?
Answer: Belief.Who do you foresee as the biggest threat to India, especially if the side makes it to the decisive stages.
Ourselves. The Indian team is capable of beating any side. If the side stays positive mentally, and performs collectively and consistently, there is no reason why we cannot do well. We have to play our normal cricket, not allow the situations to get the better of us. We have to keep it simple. This is an open World Cup.
There is a feeling that India has a long tail. Some of the other teams bat deep.
This World Cup will be won by the top six and not by the lower order or the tail. If our top six can do the job, we should do well. And we have a very good top six.
Several of the surfaces in the West Indies have been re-laid. How do you think the pitches are going to behave?
The soil used is going to be the same. So the texture of the pitches may not change much even if they have been re-laid. The surfaces in Barbados and Jamaica might be a little quicker than the others. The pitches, in general, should not be too bad for batting.
Do you foresee a high-scoring World Cup?My guess is that the totals would be between 250 and 280.
If we go back to India's tour of the West Indies in 2006, the team had encountered problems in both bowling and batting in the middle-overs.
We have a good attack. The pace bowlers have done well. If you go back to the tour, we bowled extremely well in the Test series. More recently, in South Africa, our pacemen have been outstanding.
Munaf Patel has evolved and somebody like Zaheer Khan has made a strong comeback. Ajit Agarkar performed creditably in the West Indies the last time around. We have Harbhajan Singh who can create the pressure in the middle-overs. We also have very good back up in Anil Kumble and S. Sreesanth.
We addressed the issue of batting, and did it well in the last few games. We have a flexible side. The return of Yuvraj Singh adds to our batting in the middle and end overs.
There is a question mark about the Indian fielding.
We have to use our resources smartly, make the most out of them.
Do you feel the Indian fielding might not be stretched as much as some believe since the grounds in the West Indies are not really big?
Some of the grounds are smaller, but we will be playing in Trinidad first and the ground there is pretty big.
Irfan Pathan has not been through the easiest of periods...
This can happen to any cricketer. I am sure he will come back strongly. If you look at his record over the last three years, you will realise how valuable he has been to the side.
Do you feel the side has evolved sufficiently for the World Cup?
I am happy with where we are at the moment. This is the best we could have done.
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