The Rediff interview/ Sadagoppan Ramesh

'The Aussies crack under pressure'

On the fourth morning of the Kolkata Test against Australia, a player went up to coach John Wright and in a voice full of hesitation and doubt, asked, "John, am I playing in the next Test?"

"If we win this Test, yes, otherwise…" came the reply.

"John, give me one last chance to prove myself," Sadagoppan Ramesh, speaking with the knowledge of the hovering axe, pleaded. "Chepauk is my ground, I'll get you the runs."

"That's good," the coach replied. "I like your confidence."

Ramesh -- and Wright -- may both have been remembering the former's baptism into Test cricket. The left-handed opener had walked out to open for India for the first time in his life, and on his home ground found himself confronting the pace of Wasim Akram and Waqar Younis in the last session of play.

As it turned out, VVS Laxman and Rahul Dravid batted all day, that day at Kolkatta, and Ramesh was the prime beneficiary. He kept his place, was involved in vital opening stands in Chennai, India went on to win that Test as well and with it the series, and Ramesh received a fresh lease of life.

His mates call him 'Taki' -- because of his penchant for shaving his head.

He is an avid reader of comics. And when he speaks, as in this freewheeling chat with Faisal Shariff, he can be funny and serious in turns. Excerpts:

You had, by your standards, a poor run in the series against Australia. In fact, it can be argued that you haven't really translated your talent into big scores. Any idea why?

I was having a problem with my concentration. I was getting quickly to my fifties, but failing to convert them into big scores. I should have got a big one in Kolkatta but Mark Waugh took a great catch to dismiss me. I spent a lot of time thinking about my game after that Test and realised my mistake.

What was the difference between Kolkatta and Chennai, from a personal point of view?

After Kolkatta, I really realised that it was important to understand the difference between quantity of runs that I got in the first two Tests and the quantity of time that I spent in the middle. After that I started playing on the patience of the bowlers. McGrath kept bowling to me outside the off-stump, and I just didn't touch them. Then he started bowling across me, and I kept flicking him. I decided to play time out.
I feel I am a better player under pressure. I do agree that I get complacent sometimes, but that has changed now. I have disciplined my game, and worked hard on my concentration. Earlier I was looking for fours all the time, John told me to concentrate on rotating the strike. He felt that a left-right combination could worry the bowlers a lot.

Did you and Das get together and plan things before Chennai?

Das and I were very upset that we weren't getting opening partnerships. We spoke about setting targets for ourselves, decided that our first goal was to get 100 on the board. We went out with that in mind, and concentrated on supporting each other, backing each other up. I think we understand each other much better now. And I think our partnerships did help the side a lot in Chennai.

How would you rate Sourav Ganguly's contribution to the side?

Very highly. Sourav is a very interactive captain. Even as a batsman alone, he inspires a lot of confidence and as a captain, he is very tough mentally, his body language never indicates that he is feeling down, or lost. One good thing about him is that he really talks to the players. It is really a great advantage that we have him as our captain, and that the other seniors like Rahul and Sachin are also of our own age group.
There's been a lot of fuss about what Sourav has said at times, but I support him one hundred pre cent. You can't be nice to everyone, all the time. If Steve (Waugh) talks like that it is gamesmanship, if Sourav Ganguly talks like that he is arrogant?! That is most unfair. Another thing is that Sourav backs his mates even when they are on a low, or losing, and that is a huge thing for us. Sourav, in fact, at one time asked me if I thought he was arrogant, and I said I didn't think so. Sourav is a superb leader of men.

Which was your favourite moment of the series, from a personal point of view?

The catch I took off the hat-trick ball of Harbhajan's!'Bajji'. When Shane Warne walked out to bat in Kolkata, I thought of the innings he played in Adelaide, I remembered how he scored 70-odd and got Australia to 390. At that time, I had watched him pretty closely and there are these two typical shots of his, the huge sweep, or the paddle. The moment he shaped to paddle, I just lunged and stuck my hand out, and got the ball. For me, that has to be the moment of the series.

The series was really black and white wasn't it? India was outplayed in Mumbai and for half of the Kolkatta Test -- and then the Aussies were on the receiving end. When and how did the tide change, what are the moments you remember vividly?

I think the second innings of the Kolkata Test changed the tide for us. But besides the batting of Laxman and Dravid, it was our attitude in the field that took the Aussies by surprise. The Aussies had never expected us to be aggressive on the field.
When Steve Waugh walked into bat, he found all of us going at him. We started giving it to him, and he didn't know how to react. We kept telling him that if he was the best batsman in the world then this was the time to prove it, to show us how good he was against spinners. He was getting edges every second ball or so and really struggling, and at the same time he didn't know which of us to take on, because I would say something about his edge from forward short leg and Rahul and Saurav were at him from the slips and Das was saying things from silly point.
That was the first time I've seen Steve lose it, really get irritated.
The Aussies, we realised, are very tough on the outside but if you can really put pressure on them, they collapse completely. They can't bat under pressure. In the last 15 Tests they've played, except the one game against Pakistan in the second Test, their batting never came under real pressure. We thought about that, and we used it to our advantage.

The Indian team under Wright I notice is into goal-setting, so what goals did you set for yourself for the Zimbabwe tour?

I want to get hundreds in Tests now. I get good thirties and forties but I fail to capitalize on them. But now, I am no longer complacent, there is a hunger for runs and when I am hungry, I know I'll get lots of runs, so that is my immediate goal.

You score your runs fast, you are at ease against pace, so how come you never seem to be in the reckoning for the one-day squad?

Actually, it hurts that I am not in the ODIs, I want to be there. I think I have to use my performance in Tests to push myself into the ODI squad, getting hundreds in domestic cricket won't do it for me. I have to get hundreds, huge ones, in Tests.

Interviews

Mail Cricket Editor