Ahmedabad: “Asli tournament chalu ho raha hai (the real tournament is starting),” Varun Chakravarthy exhorts his team in a BCCI video ahead of the Super 8s. “Dogfight will be very important.”
Asli tournament also brings asli pressure. If the league stage involving clashes against the Associate teams was about avoiding a banana peel, the Super 8s will see the difficulty quotient rise manifold.
Call it a coincidence, the quick-fix schedule of the tournament has set up all the table toppers against each other. A crammed group of unbeaten teams means every side has momentum on their side.
Come Sunday, one of India or South Africa would have tasted defeat.
South Africa head coach Shukri Conrad, who sparked a bit of controversy for his ‘we want them to grovel’ remark after beating India 2-0 at home in the Test series, tried to raise the pitch again.
“There’s so much scrutiny, especially on a side like India. They’re going to be under a lot of pressure to make the semi-finals and go on and make the finals as well,” he told the SA media. “Hopefully we can expose them and make them vulnerable under that pressure.”
India skipper Suryakumar Yadav was asked whether the home team felt the pressure. “See, it’s very difficult to say there’s no pressure or it’s easy to handle,” he said. “When you’re playing such a big event on your home soil, you definitely feel pressure. It’s not that you can run away from it.”
Results aside, part of the pressure an India captain has to deal with comes from the expectations of the fans. The followers are closer than ever to the players, given the proximity social media provides. Shut your social media handles and still there is no keeping away from fans who want to meet in person. Autograph requests have been replaced by demands of a selfie. All they want is to wish the captain well. But all of it can get overwhelming in between training sessions, media duties, team meetings and personal time for the players.
“When you meet so many people in the hotel when you are travelling, they have the same goal, to win the World Cup, we have to do well. So yes, of course, there is pressure,” Surya added. “But at the same time, every individual has a different plan to deal with it. We are trying our best to keep it simple – be in the present, try to keep our feet (grounded).”
Different captains dealt with pressure differently. Rahul Dravid was intense and didn’t stay in the job for too long. Sourav Ganguly was a natural leader who knew how to redirect pressure. Virat Kohli was strong-willed and could sail through on the strength of belief in his abilities. Rohit Sharma never took his post too seriously and had fine man management skills.
Surya has his own defence mechanism to deal with pressure. He came out laughing in the months leading up to the World Cup when his bat had gone silent. Now that his young teammate Abhishek Sharma has had a poor start, he still bats for him with the same enthusiasm.
When asked whether consideration was being given to drop No.3 Tilak Varma, he made fun of the question. “If there is no pressure, there won’t be any fun in playing this game,” he summarised.
Pressure is one reason why World Cups don’t see scores bursting through the roof. Conditions aside, conservatism creeps into your strategy as the stakes go up. There have been only seven 200-plus totals in the 40 matches so far – all with Associate sides at the receiving end.
The 300-plus runs marketing pitch has turned into material for trolling. “In bilaterals, guys come in and play with a lot more freedom, but World Cups bring a decidedly different type of pressure,” Conrad said.
