12 November - Bengaluru - India Fielding Coach T Dilip post-match press conference
[Reporter:]
The team has of course had a superb run. The New Zealand game is just two days away. Thoughts on that? And knockouts? India have had a bit of a problem in recent years. So, like what's required to keep continuing this run?
[T Dilip:]
I think you can really see that we won all the league matches till now. So, the momentum is with us and the most important we thrive as a team is play to our standards. That's what we're looking for and you can clearly see that we have done really well with them in Dharamshala. So, we take those positive things. Go ahead and play the day.
[Reporter:]
Obviously, you all worked a lot on your fielding and your catching as well. But throughout the tournament, we have seen that Siraj especially has had his problems. Is that like an inherent problem or what is going wrong? Is it the tension of the match? What is happening with him?
[T Dilip:]
Nothing specific is a problem. I really appreciate the bowlers especially. It is tough in a big tournament to find their own ways. Their commitment towards the fielding session has been excellent. It's just that one hot catch. But if you look at the overall in a bigger picture, I think if a commitment attitude, the way he's putting his body on the line was outstanding. So, it's something we are working for, the consistency, and I'm sure he has the skill to replicate in important games.
[Reporter:]
Lots of discussion around the fielding award obviously. So just if you could give an idea about the background behind it, like what was the thinking and idea behind that?
[T Dilip:]
I think firstly, it’s truly heartening to see that the response at which the fans gave in social media. But the whole idea about this medal, what it represents is that the intent and effort, what the spirit you give, get onto the field, which may not be seen on the stats, but it can be felt by everyone who are in the stadium. So, what we look at is - yes, the stats, runs, saves, catches taken, is measured. But also, what value you give to the team is also counted. So, that is something, an encouraging factor we want to get into the test now.
[Reporter:]
On KL Rahul as a keeper, like through this World Cup, firstly, like for a guy who has not done so much of it in domestic cricket coming up, in terms of workload and managing it, mental fatigue and all that. How much work does he put in and like how impressed are you with how he's done?
[T Dilip:]
I think it’s been truly amazing wicket keeping he's been doing at this present. Of course, you rightly said when he came, he came from a long layoff and an injury. So that was something that would be really challenging factor, how would he keep up the wicketkeeping skills especially, but he came up really well. He's someone who's been doing wicketkeeping from a young age. So that is not a problem, but we identified a couple of factors and we worked on. And every wicketkeeper is different. He's someone who, if he trusts and we start having a discussion, and once he believes that, it's a matter of a couple of sessions and he adapts to it. So he is that kind of a wicketkeeper. And I'm quite happy the way he is moving laterally. And also, for his height, you can see that the low catches which he is taking forward is an outstanding.
[Reporter:]
You said that India won all the matches. So, the momentum is with us. What do you think there are areas of concern or areas of improvement that we can still improve upon? The last two were very crucial matches.
[T Dilip:]
I think going forward, going into the knockout game, I think we were in a perfect player situation where, if you can see, all the batters got a start, and they have been in good, nick. If you look at the bowlers also, they've been picking wickets. Not only the spinners, the fast bowlers are doing the job. Even the feeling, the intensity at which we are going about is outstanding. We already played in Mumbai. So, I think it would be a good contest on that particular day. But from our point of view, I think our standards have been really up there. So, that would be a good contest going forward.
[Reporter:]
With the ball, some of the part-timers chipped in a few overs. And even when Kuldeep Yadav put in a dive towards the end, Rahul told him to avoid it. Was it just done because there is a 48-hour turnaround between this game and the semi-final?
[T Dilip:]
See, the certain fielding habits we want to develop as a group is the attitude which we want. And we want to make it and have it about it. So, that is something at that point of the time that player does what he feels he has to done, we give all the freedom to it. But yeah, effort is something we stress upon, both in the practice and as much more stress we put effort in the practice sessions, then in the match, the match situation takes over. Part-timers today, they've all been bowling in the nets. So, they're rolling their arm in a match so that you never know in an important match, so they are ready for it.
[Reporter:]
Just on the fielding medal itself, when you first put that idea to Rahul and Rohit. How did they react when you said that there would have to be cameras in the dressing room for example? Can you just take us through how they reacted to that?
[T Dilip:]
So, the whole idea actually started and you are seeing the medal in the World Cup. But this idea we started 4 months back, where we started to declare the best fielder award in the dressing room in every game. Just at the medal and we are able to see the medal presentation all over in social media now in the World Cup. But the whole idea was to make sure that we not only encourage or talk about that brilliant catch, but also the consistent performance in a 50-over game, which is very important because 300 balls, how you carry that consistency, whether it is catching or effort or intensity is what we want to get that important going. So that was the main reason behind getting this medal.
[Reporter:]
Which today's best fielder?
[T Dilip:]
I would say wait and watch and that would be interesting one because it's just not about catches as we mentioned earlier. It's about attitude. Everything counts, so I'm sure we'll take all that in consideration.