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ICC CRICKET WORLD CUPMarch 7, 2015Brendon McCullumNAPIER, NEW ZEALAND Q. Have you got a team for us yet? BRENDON McCULLUM: Same team they gave you. Q. Was that a difficult decision to sit long, given the fact that you've only got one pool game to go, and it may be problematic with get being any other guys into that game? BRENDON McCULLUM: We'll have to wait and see on that game, but I think if we look at the campaign as not just an isolation of the World Cup but also the games leading into it, so the series against Sri Lanka and the series against Pakistan, we've been able to get, I guess, over the course of 12 games, a fair amount of game time into a lot of guys. Obviously we've settled on this as our No. 1 eleven at this point in time, but I'm confident if injuries do, I guess, come about in games to come, we've got experience on the sideline and the personnel on the sideline, as well, that can step up and perform a role given to them. But at this stage we think the nature of the games that we've had as well over the last little while, they haven't been overly taxing games in terms of the physical demands on especially our bowlers, so it still gives them another good chance to get into their work, and we think that this is the best 11 for us at this point in time. Q. What do you know about Afghanistan apart from what you would have seen at World Cup games here? BRENDON McCULLUM: Well, I think their bowling looks quite strong. I think it's fair to say it's probably their strongest suit. They've got three guys that bowl in excess of 140 Ks and have asked some questions of some very good teams at the start of their batting innings. They look like a team which under Andy Moles, as well, is playing with a lot of passion and really enjoying their World Cup campaign so far. Just as we are with every team, we're respectful of the challenges these guys will bring us. Hopefully the wicket will be nice and flat and we'll see a good contest unfold. If we win the toss we will look to have a bat, as was said in the media yesterday, as well, and judging by the wicket, I would imagine Afghanistan would look to have a bat, as well. We know they certainly pose some dangers to us. We need to make sure we're up for this game as we have been the previous ones, and I'm confident we will be. Q. Your approach is pretty much set in stone as a side. Have you decided to tweak what you're doing at any stage, or are you likely to contemplate that at any stage, or do you think you've got every base covered? BRENDON McCULLUM: Tweak as in Q. How you go about playing sides? BRENDON McCULLUM: No, I think we'll still try and operate the same way. That's the sort of thing with style that sets well to us. We've seen that it works for us, as well. We're not always going to bowl sides out for 150, going about our work the way we have, but we still think by making plays it gives us our best possible chance. You can see aggressive or positive mindset that we're going into games with and in situations, as well, which probably sitting delicately poised at times, we try and take the aggressive option, and it's not always going to work, but we do think that that's the best method of play for us, and we'll continue to operate like that. Q. Brendon, you have three games in the first weekend of the tournament, then you have the intensity of facing Australia in that match. Is it a slightly different challenge now at least for the end of the group stage, the games are a bit more spread out to make sure you don't lose any impetus in the campaign? BRENDON McCULLUM: Yeah, like we said, we've got to make sure that's one of the challenges we're aware of, playing three games in three weeks as it will be brings its own challenges. You try and cover that by the way you go about your training and you're making sure you're keeping guys fresh, as well. I think we've been able to, I guess through a really stable coaching staff, as well, been able to prepare our weeks accordingly, and we've seen some times where we've had a few days off and then when we've got back into training we've been training with high intensity. That is going to be a challenge for us, but I still think that we've got the wherewithal about us to make sure that we can overcome those challenges and make sure that we're still fresh come game time regardless of whether we're playing once a week or three times in a week. Q. Just a word on Dan. He's approaching 300 wickets. He's been steady in all the games, exceptional games. How well do you think he's performed? BRENDON McCULLUM: Yeah, it's outstanding. We were obviously without Dan for a few years, and even during probably three years ago, he probably wasn't his absolute best, either, in terms of injuries and fitness, and now to see him back and fit and enjoying his cricket, I think you can tell that by the way he carries himself on the field, as well, and the way he chases every ball down like a youngster, the leadership signs, as well, is a characteristic of a guy who's enjoying his cricket. What it also allows us to do from a strategic point of view is be able to chop and change the pace of the game, and that's, I guess, what we saw in that last game, that we've got a lot of attacking options in our lineup, but we've also got someone like Dan who can fill both roles in the way that he can stem the flow of a full assault from the Australian bowlers the other day and was able to change the momentum in that game, just shows how good a bowler he is and how calm he is under pressure, as well. He's a massive player for us. He allows us to be able to play an attacking brand of cricket because he also brings with him that skill that he can put the brakes on, as well, at times that we may be behind the 8 ball. We've said all the way along that you can only attack from positions of parity or strength. If you're behind in the game, I think a guy like Dan is so crucial to get us back to the parity to be able to put the hammer down again. Q. You've made your selection process pretty clear now. Has it been in your mind for a while now that you could potentially go through the World Cup unchanged? BRENDON McCULLUM: It's been a little bit of a moving target because of the way the games have unfolded. I think Adam Milne, I may be wrong, but I think he's bowled 21 overs in the tournament so far. In an ideal world he probably would have bowled a fair few more than that and then we would have been looking to call upon someone, I guess, from the bench to be able to come in and take up some of the slack. But the way the games have unfolded has allowed us, I guess, the luxury of being able to roll out the same team. You have your best laid plans. We make sure that we've been able to prepare ourselves weeks or months in advance, as well, but you've also got to have that, I guess, that fluidity within your group and your decision making team to be able to make those changes when you're required, and I think by us naming the team again now, it shows that we are confident in the group of guys that we've got. Q. Just on the four players we haven't seen, I know you guys have always said all 15 players are ready when called upon, but given that they haven't played any games in over a month now, about a month, how ready can those players really be? BRENDON McCULLUM: Well, they can be ready from a mental point of view. I think that's the beauty of the squad that's been picked is that we've got guys on the sideline who have got experience, guys who given any situation if they haven't played a game for two months they find themselves in a must win game and they come in for their first game of the tournament, they've got 160 games to call on in Kyle Mills' case. You got 80 odd games to call on in Nathan's case. You've got a guy like Tom who's so adaptable in the way he goes about his cricket and he's got a level head on his shoulders, as well that he won't be overawed in a tough situation, and you've got a guy like Mitchell McClenaghan who has come in and done really well for us, regardless whether he's playing three games a week or one game in a month you know what he's going to bring to the table. He's a big confidence booster for the group, and also a bit of a fill up for the selectors as well, in the fact the squad they've picked is now playing out to be the perfect squad under the circumstances that we've been confronted with. It was tough on them. They desperately want to be involved in this World Cup from a playing point of view, but they're also such strong people off the field and they're crucial team members, and we've seen that every one of them has still got a smile on their face every day they turn up to training, and each of them have said they'd rather be here with a bib on than sitting on the couch watching from afar. We're lucky from that point of view, and it's a good sign from a team dynamic, as well, I guess. Q. Heard from a couple of notable cricketing faces, I suppose, the last couple days, Shaun Pollock and also John Buchanan cite this team's batting as a potential weakness. Do you think that criticism is fair? BRENDON McCULLUM: I guess we'll see. It's sort of the nature of how we've played the games of late and the fact that we've been able to have success bowling first has obviously meant that our batting probably hasn't been as challenged potentially as other teams in the competition. But we'll never know until we get in those situations, but I'm confident that the guys we've got within the group are very, very good players and very good players under pressure, and we'll see over the coming weeks how we stand up, but I'm comfortable with the squad that we've got. That's for sure. Q. Is it difficult to keep your mind off the other group and potential quarterfinal opponents? You want to focus on the games that are in front of you, but people start looking at what's coming up and who the likely opponents are in quarterfinals? BRENDON McCULLUM: You guys don't make it any easier, that's for sure. Our focus has to be on each game. I've said all along, we're not good enough to turn our attention to games that are outside what's in front of us. I completely 100 percent agree that that is what we have to make sure we do. We turn up each game, we give the opposition the level of respect they deserve, whether they're a top team in the world or whether they're ranked 10 or 15. We need to make sure we turn up, give a performance which is worthy of the dynamic of the team and also the style we're trying to play. If we do that, then any team we come up against is going to have to play well to beat us, and that's no different to these next two games, as well. That's where our focus has to be. Q. Brendon, we've seen South Africa post back to back 400s and also Australia. Do you see that as almost closing in on a par score on a track like that tomorrow? BRENDON McCULLUM: We'll see, I guess. If we do bat first we've just got to make sure we've got what we think is a score just above par. If we can get well above par, then that's great, but you've got to get yourself to a stage where you think you've got a winning score. Some of the other teams in the competition have had some outstanding results, South Africa back to back 400s so no easy feat regardless of who you're playing against. Yeah, we're respectful of how they're going and respectful of the opposition in the whole World Cup is performing, but for us we've got to make sure we turn up and execute our game plan as best we can. Q. We haven't talked to you since last Saturday, but can you talk us through the blow you took to the arm, and did you actually feel that your tournament may be over at any point or were you pretty confident you were all right? BRENDON McCULLUM: First few seconds I was probably a little bit unsure. Thought I might have been in a bit of trouble. But I came through okay. Yeah, sometimes you take your eye off the ball, and it just shows in this game you can quite easily get hurt. I guess thankful that I managed to come through that and still have a part to play in this tournament. If the worst had have been the case, I still believe that we've got the squad and the personnel and the leadership within this group that not too much would have changed in terms of how we go about playing our game. Q. Back to the scores, have you been relieved and pleased that there seems to be a little bit more of a balance here in New Zealand? It's obviously helped the type of team you have on the park? BRENDON McCULLUM: Yeah, I think this World Cup has been great because you've seen scores of 400 and you've also seen scores of 120, 150, and teams are going about their work completely differently. I think that's where the excitement in this World Cup is starting to build, that most teams you know the style of play they're going to try and enter a game with so you can then see the different strategies unfold during a game. I guess that's why the game the other day was so exciting, because we had two teams who play the game very similar, two captains who like to try to play the game in the same aggressive mindset, as well, and hence the finish was so close. I think over the next couple of weeks, as well, we'll see different strategies under pressure and we'll see which ones stand up, and I think that's pretty exciting from a fan's point of view, not just a guy who's playing his part of the team in part of the World Cup, as well. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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