IPL 2021: "It might have affected David Warner but it didn't really affect the rest" - Shreevats Goswami on SRH's captaincy debacle [Exclusive]
SunRisers Hyderabad wicketkeeper-batsman Shreevats Goswami has opened up on the leadership change in the camp, saying former skipper David Warner wasn’t happy after being stripped of the captaincy. However, according to Goswami, Warner accepted the shift after a few days.
SRH went through turmoil both on and off the field in the now-suspended IPL 2021. They won just one of the seven games played, and David Warner – who has been their cornerstone for eight years now – was replaced by Kane Williamson as captain after the sixth match. The 34-year-old Aussie was even dropped for the tie against the Rajasthan Royals (RR) on May 2.
Shreevats Goswami witnessed all these developments from close quarters. He admitted that while this big change didn’t really bother the rest of the SRH squad, it affected David Warner as much as it did the fervent ‘Orange Army’ in the country. Goswami was quick to add that Warner played the perfect 12th man during the RR match in Delhi.
“It was officially announced to the team a day before the game. Again this was a management’s decision, we actually don’t have a say and we don’t worry about what’s going on, who’s getting dropped and who’s not. It might have affected David but it didn’t really affect the rest. Even David was fine after a couple of days, it’s a team game, you can’t let your negativity out and ruin the whole structure.
“So I am sure there must have been a few people who were taken aback, but nobody expressed it...he [Warner] was doing the drinks and taking things into the ground. He’s a passionate cricketer, even if he was dropped, he was doing the 12th man duties very well,” Shreevats Goswami told Sportskeeda in an exclusive interview.
While Goswami stated he didn’t sense any sort of disagreement between the captain and the management over dropping Manish Pandey, many believe it was Warner’s comments on that decision that led to his axing. Pandey played the first three games with a modest strike rate and was dropped for the next two.
However, after SRH’s Super Over loss against the Delhi Capitals (DC), Warner told the media that dropping Pandey was a “harsh call”. This seemed to have been the catalyst behind the IPL-winning captain finding himself out of favour with the thinktank.
It wasn't a mere change in leadership, for David Warner and Kane Williamson undoubtedly have different approaches to life. Shreevats Goswami also echoed similar sentiments.
"They are two different personalities and two different personalities go about captaincy in two different ways. David is more aggressive and Kane is more calm and collected – that’s the only difference, otherwise it’s just bringing the bowlers at the right time. I have only played under Kane, so I can’t compare," Shreevats Goswami chuckled.
While Warner delivered SRH's only IPL title in 2016, Williamson led from the front in a near-perfect campaign in 2018 when they lost to the Chennai Super Kings in the final.
SRH were nowhere near settled in IPL 2021, both on and off the field
SRH endured a poor start in the tournament by going down to the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) by 10 runs in their opening game. They made a total of 10 changes to their line-up across the next four games, but ended the Chennai leg with just one win from five matches.
However, it is worth noting that four of those were extremely close contests, including the nail-biting one against DC. SRH’s only win came against the Punjab Kings (PBKS), whom they thrashed by nine wickets.
The SunRisers team combination was far from settled, and Shreevats Goswami reasoned the squad wasn’t settled off the field as well.
“I can’t talk about the combination because it’s totally upto the management, the coaches, so we have no idea about that. But then, after convincingly winning the Punjab game, we thought that was the momentum we were looking for, but then after that, we shifted to a different place, Delhi. Sometimes it takes a while to get used to certain conditions, as soon as we were getting used to Chennai, we shifted to Delhi. That could have played a part,” Shreevats Goswami explained.
Add to that a huge blow SRH were dealt, when star seamer T Natarajan aggravated his knee injury and was ruled out of the tournament after playing just two games. While Goswami acknowledged Natarajan’s exceptional ability to constantly hit the blockhole, the 31-year-old said SRH had Bhuvneshwar Kumar to bank on.
“It was a big blow, but then again Bhuvi got injured last year. Now this year, Natarajan got injured and Bhuvi was there. One player actually doesn’t make a lot of difference, but then again, Nattu is valuable to the team because he can bowl those yorkers at will. So it was a bit of a setback,” Shreevats Goswami, who has been with SRH since 2018, said.
When IPL 2021 was indefinitely suspended on May 4, SRH were static at the bottom of the points table with just 2 points from 7 games, along with the lowest NRR (net run rate) in the league.
“Everything happened very abruptly, very quickly and next day we were home” – Shreevats Goswami
IPL 2021 first faced the heat of the devastating second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic when the KKR duo of Varun Chakravarthy and Sandeep Warrier tested positive for the deadly virus on May 3.
However, as Shreevats Goswami confirmed, the alarm bells went off in the SRH game a day before. He even lauded the franchise for taking immediate and adequate measures.
“As soon as Wriddhi started feeling a bit feverish, the doctors and the management decided against taking him to the ground for the Rajasthan Royals game...we didn’t take him and after 2-3 days there was another game [against MI] and he was isolated for safety protocols because he was showing symptoms. So we didn’t take him to the ground and hence he didn’t mix with other people as well. So that was a very good decision. Then we did another test and he tested positive,” Shreevats Goswami told Sportskeeda.
By the time Wriddhiman Saha’s test reports were out, he was the sixth person to have contracted the virus in two days – apart from the two KKR bowlers, DC leg-spinner Amit Mishra and Chennai support staff Mike Hussey and Lakshmipathy Balaji. There were also reports of a host of groundsmen testing positive at the Feroz Shah Kotla in New Delhi. At that time, anyone who claimed to be hopeful of the IPL continuing was lying.
“Immediately after he [Wriddhi] got to know he has tested positive, within 10-15 minutes, we got a message on the group asking us to isolate ourselves and go back to our rooms. We went back to the room and within 2-3 hours IPL got suspended, few more players were found positive. That was it, everything happened very abruptly, very quickly and next day we were home,” Shreevats Goswami added.
There could have been possible breaches of the KKR and DC bio-bubbles. Varun Chakravarthy went to a hospital for a shoulder scan and had a meal with Warrier, who later interacted with Mishra during a practice session involving both KKR and DC in Ahmedabad.
But Shreevats Goswami and his SRH teammates were left to scratch their heads over how the virus entered their bubble.
“We thought we were the safest in the bubble, that’s why it was a bit surprising because none of the players or the management breached the COVID protocols. It came from a third party, that’s what I assume. It could be anything. It was fine when we were playing in Bombay and Chennai, but when we moved to Delhi, things went haywire,” Shreevats Goswami stated.
The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) received a lot of flak for allotting IPL 2021 a multi-city format, thus exposing the cricketers and support staff to COVID-19 hotspots like the airports. But Goswami seemed convinced that the safety protocols they had undertaken for the airports were foolproof.
“No, travelling at the airports was safe as well. We were all wearing PPE kits, covered from top to bottom and travelling on charter flights which had only us. We even used secured gates at the airports for entry and exit, so I don’t think Wriddhi got it from the airport,” he said.
For the record, Wriddhiman Saha is still positive and quarantining in Delhi. He has been picked in the 20-member India squad for the World Test Championship (WTC) final and the ensuing five-Test series against England. The cohort is set to depart for the UK on June 2, but the 36-year-old Saha will travel subject to his fitness.
Shreevats Goswami breathes life into India’s COVID-19 fight
When the entire country was reeling under the pandemic, the BCCI successfully managed to keep the IPL going, stationing all teams inside bio-bubbles. But it was wrong to assume that the players were insensitive to the situation outside. Pat Cummins made headlines on April 26 by donating 50,000 dollars to UNICEF Australia’s India COVID-19 Crisis Appeal.
Bengal boy Shreevats Goswami on April 28 became the first Indian cricketer to pledge his support for the fight against the pandemic, or at least the first one to make it public. He narrated the story of coming across an NGO named Hemkunt Foundation, to which he donated 103 oxygen cylinders through an online donation platform named Donatekart.
“It was overwhelming to hear such sad news every single day, because we were confined to the hotel rooms and grounds. You see news, you read news, you get forwards, you hear people begging for oxygen supplies, people were saying how the system has failed. During that time, one of the health foundations named Hemkunt Foundation forwarded me or I think I saw it somewhere.
“So I spoke to the CEO of the Donatekart foundation which was supplying oxygen to all these NGOs in certain states to help people out. This is not a government or private sector organisation, this is an NGO who is trying to help people...and it wasn’t the money I gave, it was 103 units of oxygen cylinders which came for INR 98,000 approx. I was in constant touch with the CEO, trying to know if these were reaching the right people,” Shreevats Goswami told Sportskeeda.
The noble gesture probably stemmed from the numerous emotions one goes through while staying all alone in a room. While acknowledging how draining staying cooped up in bio-bubbles can be, Shreevats Goswami conceded he used to encounter numerous thoughts in his room.
“There are multiple stuff, thinking about the future, past and what’s happening at present, you think about your family in such situations, you try to plan that what if somebody gets COVID, what do you do, do we have enough oxygen or do we have enough contacts in the hospitals, all these stuff are running through your mind. And what if you get COVID and transfer it to your family – it’s just not the cricket part, it’s mixed feelings,” Shreevats Goswami elaborated.
On that note, we at Sportskeeda urge everyone to draw inspiration from Shreevats Goswami and come out in support of those in need in these dire times. But don’t lower your own guard at any cost. Stay home, stay safe!