Zaheer Khan is a very smart captain: Sam Billings

Delhi Daredevils middle-order batsman Sam Billings was all praise for his skipper Zaheer Khan ahead of the game against Gujarat Lions at Rajkot. Billings explained how Zaheer Khan simulates match time situations in the practice sessions and has the ability to out-think the best of batsmen in world cricket.

Narrating one such incidence, Billings quoted, “He has been fantastic. When I was batting (in the nets), he set a field to me while Shami and one of the young guys were bowling yorkers. Just the way he set that field was totally out of the box. There was no long on, instead there was a fielder at cow corner cause he knew I was a slogger anyway. As a batsman, you don’t necessarily know that he’s going to bowl a yorker, he can bowl a bumper, he can bowl a slower ball. It puts the pressure back on you as a batter because where you want to be as a batter is knowing exactly where the bowler is going to bowl. It makes it easy if you’re one step ahead.”

The Delhi Daredevils have been largely inconsistent in the IPL in the last few editions. This time the team in under the leadership of Zaheer Khan and an able mentor in the form of Rahul Dravid.

Talking about the game plans of his side and how the playing eleven has changed in almost every game for them, Billings quoted that it all depends on the playing conditions. The players are picked according to the conditions and match situations. “The way the squad is at the moment you see [in] different games we have played different combinations more or less every game. If that wasn’t the case we would be playing the same 11 every time. We got a team and squad in good form every single one of them, even the ones who haven’t played a game yet,” the English wicket-keeper quoted.

Though he added that all players are always ready to play in the playing XI. The fitness among all players is prime and whenever the opportunity comes, they take it. He also added that the atmosphere in the team is great.

“So, I think, in terms of that, the environment is such a good one that there is no animosity towards anyone. If I have to sit out, I have to sit out, but it won’t change my preparation or the other guys’ preparation. You have got to be ready, you never know when someone goes down sick or picks up an injury in the warm-up. You have to be ready. That is one of the things in this competition – the strongest squad will win the competition and not necessarily the strongest team. If we continue the way we are going I think we will have a good chance,” Billings added.

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Commenting on his own performance in the last game, scoring a half-century on debut, he said that IPL is a great stage to perform and a good show here often brings the player to the fore, for their franchise team and as well as the national team.

“It helps being a pretty young group, everyone’s looking to prove something. There’s friendly rivalries and everyone wants to kind of keep improving to get ahead of the next guy. Because ultimately this is a world stage. You impress here, you impress for your national team both as a local Indian guy but also as an overseas guy,” he conceded.