‘It’s more about mental adjustment than technique’
Preparation is about fitness but being fit means preparing in the conditions in which you are going to play, John Gloster, who worked with the Indian team from 2005 to 2008 as a physio, tells Amit Chaudhary. Excerpts
Having worked with Indian team, what do you think caused this capitulation against England in the Test seriesIJ
There were many factors. England is a very tough place to tour anyway. And the length of the tour. Those extra one or two Test matches take a lot out of you. losing Ishant (Sharma) was a psychological blow as well as a technical blow for the team after lord’s. But according to me, you can’t go to England unless you are prepared for it; from both technical and physical perspective.
I have said it a number of times that preparation is about fitness but being fit means preparing in the conditions, or similar conditions, in which you are going to play. That’s the paramount equation that we have to look at.
I believe it would be great if Indian players are allowed to play County cricket in England because that would be the best preparation for all of them. Indians have benefitted in the past. Zaheer Khan is the best example. You ask Zaheer, the turning point of his career was most probably when he played for Worcestershire. He was a magnificent bowler before but he was a significantly better bowler after he played County cricket. If you are going to play a difficult series like that, you need to expose your players to those conditions prior to that. And County cricket environment is a very good way to do that.
This team, as compared to the 2007 squad, was very young. You think the relative lack of experience was also one of the reasons for the debacleIJ
Absolutely. Again that comes from preparation but this tour is over and this sort of experience is invaluable. There is no better experience than losing because you learn more from losing than you do from winning. And for lot of these guys, it’s a pretty significant loss. So, effectively it’s not going to get worse for them as players. They are not going to experience tougher times than what they have experienced in the last three Tests. For them it can only get better and they can only be more positive about what lies ahead. They need to bounce back from that psychologically. I don’t think fitness is a real issue. They are over that hurdle. It’s more of a psychological game for them now than anything. You can be the best technical player in the world but if psychologically the game gets on top of you, you are always going to get out, you are going to nick off, you are going to ball badly. So, the psychological component of this game in new conditions like England is probably a greater defining factor than the overall physical preparations of these players.
So, you suggest there needs to be a psychologist with the teamIJ
Not psychologist in particular but somebody who works with them on the same mental plain as them. From my experience, that is where Gary (Kirsten), Paddy Upton and John Wright were so good. He (Gary) met them at the same mental plain. You have got to get the two together and that’s probably the best combination. I don’t know about Duncan (Fletcher) but I am just saying that you get the best out of the players when you have got them on your side psychologically and mentally, and approach the technical game after that. Man management is what gets the best out of an individual. That’s what it takes ordinary players to become best players. That’s why Rajasthan Royals have done better than everybody else, I believe, over the last seven years of the IPl. We took new, reasonably talented players, seeing their potential and accelerated them through exactly what I have just said — psychological management as well as technical and making them believe in themselves. That’s the bridge you have to cross in order to get the best out of them as cricketers.
India just made some changes in the coaching staff. Was it a good moveIJ
Yes, it’s great. It’s a very good move because there are very good, talented Indian coaches out there who need to be in the system. Trevor Penny is outstanding, Joe Dawes is great but you also need a nice mix of Indians; people who understand the Indian mindset, the relationships and the cultures. That is very important. Again, to get the best out of them, you have to understand them. I think Sanjay Bangar has shown that. He made that connect with the Kings XI Punjab. I don’t know if it will work with the Indian team but it’s a good idea to integrate good local Indian coaches in to that system and be around that international environment.
Earlier you mentioned about preparing in the exact or similar environment. So, do you suggest India should have gone to England a bit early to have more time to acclimatiseIJ
If calendar allows it, yes. But that also comes down another level — you need to prepare cricketers for cricket. I personally believe we do too much fitness work now in pure gym settings rather than on the field. We need to do more of them. It’s one of the reasons why, not just India but worldwide, we are getting so many cricket stress related injuries in terms of stress fractures, stress reactions in the body, overload and overused syndromes. If you are going to play cricket and you are going to bowl, you have got to bowl. You can’t prepare a bowler in the exclusive gym settings. You go back and talk to your Kapil Devs, Michael Holdings, Jeff Thompsons and all these guys about how they used to train versus how we train today. It’s significantly different. Are we nurturing these players or are we interfering too muchIJ That’s the question that got to be asked. I believe sometimes we need to take a little step back as to how we are preparing these guys for cricket. Can we do that any betterIJ
You also worked with Ishant Sharma. He has this tendency of breaking down. How do you suggest can he be used in a better wayIJ
Again that’s about preparation. You know what tour is coming up, you know what kind of workload is coming up for the frontline bowler. So, you need to prepare him for that by giving him enough cricket but not too much. He has this body type that is perhaps more conducive to injury than others. He has got very similar body type to someone like Bruce Reed and some of those guys from the 70s and 80s. So, he needs to be managed differently. He has a history of ankle surgery already so again that needs to be monitored and assessed accordingly. It’s all about preparation and looking forward even if the series is six months ahead.
We saw Bhuvneshwar Kumar’s performance going down towards the end of the series. Was it because of tirednessIJ How can it be avoidedIJ
That could also be because of expectations. The English are good players of his type of bowling — swing bowling. He performed exceptionally well in those first two or three Test matches. You got to remember that you are taking these kids out of their protective environment, away from their comfort zone, family and home into an unfamiliar environment. Eventually that’s going to take its toll. That may change their mindset psychologically which will affect their performance.
What’s your take on four-bowler strategyIJ
It’s a lot of workload, especially when one or two bowlers are not performing as well as they could. Even more load of expectation is put on the other two who are doing well. So, that’s a selection issue but if you are physically and mentally prepared for that, you will do it.
As a physiotherapist, what would you suggestIJ
You got to look at the conditions. You are going to be picking players who are going to be performing in the right conditions. As a physio, I would always like to see five bowlers going in because I know there is a potential for injury. So, if you do lose one, you are down to just three frontline bowlers. It’s all about distributing load evenly so that one person is not excessively overloaded. Whenever I see four bowlers going in, I get a bit nervous because potential for injury is greater.
Do you see any adverse effect of IPl on playersIJ
The programming these days is such that there’s enough time after the IPl to recover. IPl is demanding in some ways but it’s T20 cricket, it’s different. You are breeding different types of players who are actually better able to adapt to all types of situations than others.
It’s been said before that if you are technically good then you are going to excel in any form of the game. Therefore it becomes a mindset thing. So, the technical side doesn’t matter. That’s not going to affect the game so much. All these guys are very good technically and they all have performed at the highest level. The difference that separates those guys who go on and adapt to all forms is perhaps the mental side of the game and the application. Rahul Dravid did it beautifully. People never really expected him to do so well in T20. That’s purely a mental application of ‘I am going to succeed and I am going to use my basic skills that I have, which are very good.’ It’s more about mental adjustment than technical adjustment.
With so much cricket is being played these days, from a physio’s perspective, you think there is a need to identify players for different formatsIJ
That’s what preparation is all about. To identify teams, to identify tours, to identify who is going to be playing where and managing each individual player separately according to exactly what they are going to be playing. Preparation is not just going to gym and doing few rounds of exercise and getting on a plane to England. It is about preparing players months in advance.