This franchise is different from all others. This franchise is giving me the freedom and I also want to win some matches for them. I worked in that way as well - it is helping me, I know they are going to bowl short balls and I'm ready for that. They want me to go on a higher strike-rate and I want to do that.
Definitely today's game was perfect - batting, bowling and fielding, and against a team like Gujarat we needed to come up with a performance like this. In Chennai we are not sure how the wicket will be, we need to do well irrespective of batting or bowling first. Here if we have wickets in hand at the end it helps. Personally, Rachin batted brilliantly in the powerplay and took the game away. From there we were always ahead. [on Dube] In terms of confidence, the management and Mahi bhai worked with him personally, his confidence is very high. He knows his roles very well. Definitely he is a big plus for us. I'm impressed with the fielding as well. Maybe one or two youngsters we have extra this year and great effort from Jinks, even in the last game he was running from one end to the other. Fielding is a big tick for us.
Since the time I have been playing, I have been bowling 3 overs in the powerplay, used to it, just trying to bowl as well as possible with the new rules around. Earlier, if you bowled a bouncer in the first 2-3 balls, batters were always ready for a full length ball, but this new rule with two bouncers allowed, it helps the pacers. There's bounce always, but there's not much dew around at the moment. The ball grips and bounce at the moment. I got to look at Mahi (MSD) bhai and at Ruturaj - both these days.
They outplayed us when we were batting, their execution was spot on. We backed ourselves to get a decent score in the powerplay and once we didn’t, we were always playing catch-up. It was unfortunate for us. In T20 you can always talk about 10-15 runs here or there, end of the day it’s about how much they got. On this wicket, we were expecting to chase 190-200. I think it's great learning for the bowlers. I think it’s better to have this kind of game early on in the tournament rather than in the middle or late. We always expected to chase 190-200, it was a really good wicket. Felt like we let ourselves down while batting. (On captaincy) Lots of new learnings, new experiences and different things. It’s exciting to captain a team like Gujarat Titans, we’ve made it to the finals in the last couple of years so very exciting.
It was a pretty good wicket to bat on. The new ball was coming on nicely. It was about showing some intent, good to bat with Ruturaj. The outfields in India are pretty quick, you get pretty good value for your shots. As a player you want to take down the powerplay. It (total) is slightly over par, but still it's a very good wicket. There's slight dew on the outfield. (Will bowl a few overs) hopefully.