Responsibility to maintain team environment falls on seniors and India has seniors who are very secure: Deep Dasgupta

With team India’s young and rising superstar Shubman Gill overtaking Babar Azam as the no.1 ranked batter in the ICC ODI rankings, he joins his teammate Mohammad Siraj at the top who is also ranked as the no.1 bowler in the ICC ODI rankings.

Speaking exclusively to Star Sports show “Follow the Blues”, ex-Indian cricketer and StarCast Deep Dasgupta previewed India’s final league match against Netherlands, as he shared his views on India’s game-plan and the importance of having the right environment within the team. He also discussed if any changes should be made to India’s playing 11 in the upcoming match.

Dasgupta shared his views on India’s game-plan and the importance of having the right environment within the team, he said – “It is very important to have one’s gamelan right. If one’s game plan is right and you have the mental discipline to play with that game-plan then nothing like it, because in the end, it is all about game-plan. And after that what comes is execution.

"So game plan, mental discipline and execution is something the team can learn from Rohit or Virat as they have displayed it for so long. And another factor is team environment. The responsibility to maintain the team environment falls on the senior players. This team has senior players who are very secure, be it Rohit, Virat or Shami. Shami did not even get the opportunity to play the first few games, but he’s so secure that he’s not shown it in his attitude or mannerisms that he was disappointed that he’s not playing, he always looks at himself as mentor be it for Siraj or Prasidh Krishna. So that environment is created by senior players, and the senior players in this team are doing a fabulous job.”

Dasgupta speaking on Gill, Siraj and team India all being ranked no.1 in ICC rankings, he said- “Yes, it’s absolutely very good news and we are very happy with these rankings. The most important thing about this, is these lads are next generation players like in batting Shubman Gill who will be the next generation batter of Team India is number one right now, similarly Mohammed Siraj who is the number one in bowling right now will be India’s next generation pacer. So, I feel number one in itself is a very big positive point as we are talking about the next generation players. So, it’s quite visible that the beacon is passing slowly into that direction and our future cricket is in absolute safe hands.”

Dasgupta speaking on if any changes should be made to India’s playing 11 in the upcoming match, he said – “No, I wouldn’t want to see any changes because I am against making unnecessary changes. Even in Asia Cup during the last league match against Bangladesh, my opinion was the same, that we didn’t need changes. Because when unnecessary changes are made it can mess the team balance, and I believe if something’s not broken it doesn’t not need fixing.”