With good men, you become a good captain - Balaji
The Tamil Nadu captain talks to ESPNcricinfo about his thoughts on leadership and how much it hurts to have never won a Ranji Trophy
I am quite keen on him [Srinivas] doing well. He is just 18 years old and is playing only his third season. He needs my guidance. I need him to bowl the way the team wants. On the first day at the Wankhede there won't be much turn. The pitch has a good amount of moisture and carry; as a bowler you have to be a bit smart and bowl a line where the ball is being taken away from the body. Aushik has the natural ability to drift the ball in and take it away. So I have been asking him to bowl a specific length on the off stump. I told him to do it for just one session and he would notice the difference: the batsman struggles immediately. Aushik just needs to change his line, not his length. You have to adjust to the conditions. That is why when I came out (of the shower) I checked on him, and he was not doing it.
Everything happened so fast. Badri [S Badrinath] got injured and was out of the first three rounds, and I was named captain at the last minute. This year we brought a lot of young faces in - offspinners Malolan Rangarajan and Sunny Gupta, allrounder Baba Aparajith, medium-pacer J Kaushik, batsman Kaushik Gandhi and left-arm spinner Rahil Shah - and it was important that these guys understood the basic principles of four-day cricket straightaway.
It is not an easy job to get 20 wickets on domestic pitches. It takes a lot of hard work. You need the mental stamina to stay out there and bowl 200 out of the 360 overs as a team. You have to accept that first. I have a very young and inexperienced team. Despite that we managed to bowl sides out twice in the first three matches of the season.
You cannot ask for more: we have got experience, we have got players who have the required mental strength in Badri, Abhinav [Mukund] and everyone else; we have a wicketkeeper batsman (Dinesh Karthik), which allows us to play five bowlers. The good thing about our batsmen is they are always fighting hard to prove themselves. I have faith in my batting order. They don't need any guidance from the captain. They just need a platform.
My intensity is what keeps me going on. That helps me as I am an attacking bowler. I am a player who wants to win, so each and every game is a challenge for me. Mentally I have become more aware of how to bowl my spells according to the conditions and what lengths to bowl on particular pitches. I have had 11 years of learning, but at heart I am still the same youngster who wants to run in hard, bowl a bouncer and look the batsman in the eye. I will not take punches lying down.
We know what Mumbai is all about. But we do not need to focus too much on them. As long as you take every match as an important one you need not look at the opposition's players and the results they have achieved. You need to persist, persevere and do best what you enjoy, love and are passionate about. If you do anything less it is an injustice to your potential. You have to play as a team, be as a team, and enjoy as a team whatever happens.
Definitely, it does hurt. For me, Badri, and anyone who has been there for at least ten years, a Ranji title will be the best thing to happen to us. But it is not an individual thing. It is a team which has to enjoy and deliver. That is an area where Mumbai have an edge over opponents. They must be doing some things right as a team.
When you have good men around you, you become a good captain. As long as it lasts, I will enjoy it, but even if I am not named captain next season I will continue playing and leading in my own way.
Nagraj Gollapudi is an assistant editor at ESPNcricinfo