audio audioduration (s) 8.85 20 | text stringlengths 60 508 |
|---|---|
I remember I was not disciplined at all in terms of my eating and my fitness. I mean I can't even relate to that guy anymore that I was in those years, you know. So I played IPL from 2008, 2009, 2011 and then 2012. IPL 2012 was... I was playing for India. | |
I was playing for the national team at the highest level, but I hadn't got the success that some of the established players did. And IPL 2012 again had a really, really bad IPL season and my eating habits were horrible in that season. Very, very bad and I remember coming back... | |
home and I came out of the shower the team didn't do well I came out of the shower I looked at myself in the mirror and I was like that's the time it hit me you know and luckily everything that's that's been bad in me somehow I get that calling myself that you need to get it right like they're hardly anyone coming and... | |
messing up. It just comes from within and then I saw myself in the mirror and I was like you can't look like that if you're an international cricketer you know I was like how the hell are you gonna continue like this if you don't take care of yourself. Boom from next day onwards I just changed everything about my diet... | |
in a week eating proper lean food I got away from all kinds of you know junk I did not have a cheat day at all and within eight to ten months I lost about six or seven kgs and then from then on it became such an addiction because I saw the results on the field I felt | |
I felt lighter, I felt more focused and then I was like, man, this is the path I want to walk. It was before all of this happened. This was when I played for the country and then I was left out and for 13 months I wasn't selected again and then it became sort of a madness that I want to get back up. I want to get back... | |
13 months, I was like, I was so focused, I was so focused that I want to get back, I want to get back into the team and my performances were such that the selectors could not ignore me after a while so eventually I got my chance again and luckily I've never been out of the team since. This was actually end of 2011-201... | |
actually when we came back from Australia and I figured out the difference or the gap that we have with other countries and I thought if if we don't change the way we are playing or I don't change the way I am playing or the way I'm training or thinking or you know eating I can never be among the best players in the w... | |
There's no point in just competing if you don't want to be the best. So I wanted to be the best version of myself and then I based everything around that vision. And then my training, my diet, my approach towards the game, everything changed. And I know that I wasn't the most skilled. | |
sportsperson when I came in but the only thing that's been constant is working hard on myself and my game and that was the time I realized well if the Indian team has to be the best team in the world we need to go ahead in a certain manner. I didn't feel that you know when I walked into play there was any kind of fear... | |
in the opposition corner so I felt like I don't want to walk into the field thinking or the opposition thinking or this is just a push over don't worry about this guy he's gonna do no damage to us and he's just playing just like another player in the team and stuff | |
I wanted to make an impact. I knew that I have the ability to make my team win and I wanted to be that version of myself where if I walk in, I wanted teams to think like we need to get this guy out or else we're going to lose the game. So I thought if I can't have that impact on my team, then I'm not doing justice to,... | |
where I am and if I don't want to be that guy there's something wrong in my head either I've accepted being you know lower than what I should be or I just don't have enough drive in me so I said I'm gonna unlock my max potential and achieve what I should be | |
Look, people don't realize this until you experience it. So you can experience success at a very different level. You can experience fame at a very different level. Fame is one thing that I can't sit here and say, oh, I love it because | |
I've never been a guy who's I like my own time. I like to be left alone because I understand that I need to recharge myself Stay connected to myself to be able to be the best version of myself for people for my family For the game and if if | |
If I can't do that, then I'm not happy. And I think fame takes away a lot of, a big part of you in that regard. Because what that does is that even if you walk past any area, anywhere, and there is someone or the other who's having an interaction with you. And it's constant. | |
And you can't shut off people. Obviously people are being nice to you. They love what you do and you obviously have to respond and you have to connect with them. But over a period of time, you realize that you want some normalcy. So fame, success, money, all these things, they look great when you don't, when you don't... | |
But to be honest, that is not the key to happiness. I mean, I could sit here and say that I have all the three, but there are moments where I'm just not happy. I mean, if 10 years ago, you would have told me, oh, you'd get all this and you'll be happy. That's not true. You still have to. I mean, today, | |
as much as I've achieved in the game. The game does not stop. If I want to play, I have to be as committed as I was before I got the success and while I was getting the success. So when you get to a certain point, you can't just say, okay, that's it. Now the game should finish. It doesn't happen. And if you want to co... | |
scheme of things that's very important to understand so you are not you are not it basically and and that's something that me and Anushka both we we discussed this so much and we are absolutely on the same page and I'm so grateful that I have someone like Anushka to be absolutely honest with me and tell me | |
things that I might not be doing right. And it's easy to drift away, very easy to drift away in the position or the situation that we are in. But to have honest conversations with each other is something that keeps us on the right track and the journey is very tough. It's not an easy journey to be in. I mean, people o... | |
Oh they have everything it must be so easy, but it's not because at the end of the day you realize We thought getting these things will sort things out But when you get there and you feel like this wasn't the answer you get even more confused you're like So what are we actually doing? You know? Where are we heading? A... | |
absolutely yourself in every moment that you're a part of whether you're with your family whether you're playing your sport doing anything that you do in life or being in the profession that you are the the fact that you can be yourself in that moment is all that matters for the rest of your life and you have to keep ... | |
yards and doing the putting in the work. That's how I look at life exactly the same way. Every day you have to put in the work and being true to yourself is the work for life and no fame, money, success can get you rid of that because you have to keep doing it every day otherwise you're miserable. | |
मैं वेरी इनर कॉटू किट ह мелसे इजरू कित। मैं क utilization कसंधून प्रहाताती हैं। मैं वहां यह customizable ब Isaiah है। हाँखुभा लक्षष参दिया। इनियार फिक्ये के user बिम from्धा नयाइँ प्रहाताती fits.. उताम इकळप शाथंता, क् identified कम्से 알려 restorations, So I had that in me! I had that, you know… | |
natural energy in me but I probably didn't have the drive or the vision, the focus to channelize that energy well. Obviously when your habits are not great, when you're young, you're not that disciplined, you're partying, you're not taking care of your rest, you have a few drinks as well, your system's not responding ... | |
it should be for a sportsman and I think it has to be a thing that comes from within. It can't be taught to you, it can't be explained from the outside. So luckily that thing came to me itself that you need to get your act right if you want to be a successful international cricketer because if you continue... | |
like this, you're just going to be one player who played for a few years and then disappeared because he wasn't disciplined enough or didn't maximise his potential. So I thought, okay, I love batting, I'm working hard at cricket but how can I improve, how can I get better, what can I add to my game? And then the whole... | |
struck me and it came to me and actually I'm grateful for the fact that the game also moved simultaneously. So I started working on myself in 2012, midway, after the IPL. About 2013 is the time that I became too lean. 2014 I continued like that. Then 2015 onwards, Mr. Shankar Basu was the Indian team's... | |
trainer and worked in RCB as well. He introduced me to Olympic lifting and you know speed strength and power endurance and these kind of things and I had never experienced that before and he because I trusted him he had worked with me for eight years he said trust me just give this a go and you will see wonders happen... | |
him. I did this for you know three weeks and my body just responded in a way that I never felt like you know myself ever again like the slower self. I felt like someone had just you know put high octane fuel in my body and I was just flying and from then on it became an obsession. I was like I'm feeling quicker I can ... | |
I am able to react better on the ball, I am reacting better while catching, I am able to feel longer periods for the whole day. So I am able to contribute for my team five times more than I was before. So why should I stop it? And if I am leading and if I want my teammates to put in effort, I should be there all day d... | |
that first, you know, before asking someone else to do it. So everything came together so wonderfully for me, my own thinking, my mindset, the fitness change, the boost through Mr. Basu, our trainer. The whole thing came along so well together and I think 2016 is when I really hit my fitness peak. Because I was so exc... | |
I want to maintain the standard that I'm playing at now till the time I finish. I don't want to be standing in the field and not being able to move the way I do right now. It's just not in me to play like that. If I can't do that, I will stop. So that is my vision. I want to be able to contribute till the last day I p... | |
So I will do anything and everything in my ability to achieve that on a daily basis. It's not easy. I mean if you ask me do I get affected by failure? Yes, I do. Everyone does. I'm human at the end of the day. So it's it's difficult to process failure at such a big stage. But also you have to understand that | |
You know, I totally believe in the fact that what's meant to be for you will happen We play a sport where we feel like we are involved every ball and you are responsible to make something happen so even failure and success you start looking like we failed because of me or you know | |
आपलह और इं धूम होंगा ग cud convince आ� para hai थलक छियनथा टो लेखे लिए जिitative टो जाता ही खरसी हुशता हूँ कि đượcत है ponieważ तो भूर tractor तो लिएच्टवल ककन लिएachtंअ क Hole bauch fatna kkha기 leach tak hyo हे Trustees | |
It's a problem in your job, anything. It is the truth of life. And you need to be able to accept both with grace. That's the thing that I've learnt. You can't go gung-ho when you succeed. You can't say, oh I'm the king of the world or we are invincible now. And when you fail, you can't... | |
beat yourself down so much that you can't get up again. So I think you need to feel the hurt, you need to feel where could I have done things differently. I think failure is a great way or a great opportunity to analyze what went wrong and to improve on those mistakes because at the end of the day cricket is all about... | |
with the next time you walk out to play or if you play a false shot and you haven't gotten out you want to improve with the next ball and similarly for bowlers and fielders you make a mistake you feel really bad about it but then you catch one and then you feel like okay I've corrected my mistake and I think life is a... | |
acceptance and the clarity to say, okay, I have made a mistake, I'm not going to be egoistic about it, I'm going to lay it down, understand what happened, improve on it and walk forward. Because as you said, you know, people say things, people attack you, if you start focusing on that, you cannot progress because thos... | |
happening on the outside. You know what opinion you hold, you know the intent you played with and you need to be true to that. So the most, the biggest challenge I felt was being true to your own beliefs. If you focus on things which are only based on success and numbers and results. | |
I don't think you can join the process. And we as a team, we play so well because we enjoy the process. We enjoy being in difficult situations and coming out on top. Basically what we are doing on a daily basis is competing with ourselves. How good can we be when we are put under pressure? It's not about coming up aga... | |
wrong. It's about bringing our own standard of f*****g cricket higher and higher on a daily basis and setting examples, the right examples for the next generation to take over whenever that happens. I don't know how to explain it. I mean, I just hate losing. You know, I basically, I hate losing. | |
in anything. That is how a sportsman is made up. That is the makeup of any sportsman competing at the highest level. So that's a given. No one is fine with losing or fine with failing. You accept it, you process it, that's different. But the most important thing for me is that you accept it. | |
in anything I do on the field is, I don't want to walk out and say, maybe I could have done this. I don't want any maybes, I don't want any what ifs. When I step onto that field, it's a privilege, it's an honor for me. And when I walk out, I want to have zero energy left, because that is what I do. | |
I'm supposed to do. That is why I'm selected. I'm not selected because I'm privileged or I should be comforted because I've reached the highest level. No. However hard I've worked for age group cricket, this has to be a constant 10 times hard working process on a daily basis because I'm representing my country. And th... | |
a bigger honor for me. So I understand the importance of where I've come from and the opportunity I have every time that I step onto the field. I don't want to leave any stone unturned. I hate having the feeling of maybe I could have gone for that catch. Maybe I could have pushed an extra... | |
yard for an extra run. That I somehow can't process. So I'm actually always trying to avoid that feeling and that's why I go along about my work in a crazy manner where I just have to put all my effort into every ball that I play, field or I'm a part of. | |
It happened in 2012, played the IPL in 2012 and the lead up to that was interesting because I had scored my first test 100 in Australia in 2012, followed by that game against Sri Lanka in Hobart where we chased that total down within 40 overs. That came out of nowhere honestly, I did not believe that I could do someth... | |
something like that at the international stage. It happened, gave me so much belief from there. And then Asia Cup came and I got 183 against Pakistan. On a Sunday, everyone was watching. So things really just turned in about six months for me. But I forgot the basics of the game. I started becoming more desperate and ... | |
I'm going to dominate everyone. But the moment IPL started a few games which didn't go my way and my mindset completely dropped to the other end. I was eating anything that came in sight. I was finishing candy packets, 40 pieces a packet. I would finish three packets a week. I was eating horribly, sleeping horribly. | |
horribly, my habits were all over the place and I finished IPL. I remember I went home, came out of the shower first day and I saw myself in the mirror and I was ashamed. It was literally I saw myself and I thought I'm looking at another human being and I told myself look if you want to play cricket at the highest lev... | |
From the next day onwards, I changed everything about my diet, the way I trained, everything. From then on, it was just an obsession. Look, when I step onto the field, I have to believe that I'm the best. Because my mindset, as I said, was very clear from the first time I started playing this game. I'm not going to al... | |
to think that I'm just a pushover. So my mindset was, I'm gonna go to Australia and how am I gonna score runs against these guys. I wasn't going out there to survive. And from the time I got back home till the Australia tour, I promised you I was visualizing every day when I was working out in the gym that I'm hitting... | |
and those things came to life eventually because I convinced myself to an extent when I went there I was absolutely fearless and things just started flowing. To be honest before that Australia tour I was treating every foreign tour like you know more like an engineering exam that I have to pass somehow and I have to s... | |
But there I realized that once you're down and out, there was hardly anyone who came to help me. There was hardly anyone who was looking towards me and saying, listen, let's work together and try to get your game up to speed. Everyone was just going after me left, right and center. So I was like, am I playing to prove... | |
with them and they literally have nothing to contribute in my life. So I went back home, I was down for quite a bit. The great thing that happened at that stage was I realised who's with me, who's not. You know, things were filtered to an extent that I just got so relaxed when I went back home. I was like, okay, I've ... | |
So what can I do? I can just work as hard as I can. For me, one thing was always and always very clear. When I step onto the field, I'm going to give 120% every game that I play. And one thing for a fact that no one can count that against me. Till the time I play this game, I am going to play this way. | |
This is who I am and if my mindset in the field is simple, I will not stand around wanting people to do something that I'm not able to do first. For me every ball is an event. Every moment is an opportunity to make your team win and that is exactly why you step onto the field. You have to make that time count. If you ... | |
tomorrow I can walk away without any regrets because everything that I've done since I entered the Indian cricket team has always been for the team. I've been booed by 40-50,000 people regularly when I enter the stadium. If I start focusing on those 50,000, I can't play a ball. For me that's an opportunity. That's an ... | |
things are stacked up against me, let me test myself how good I am. There always have been two options for me, either it's fight or flight, and I've never taken flight. Fight or flight? I've never taken flight. For me, that's just not it, because look, I can take flight. If I can't sleep peacefully at night, for me, i... | |
and that gives me peace. For me, when I leave the field, as I just said, I need to be able to know that I've given everything I had and I sleep like a baby. There's nothing else that can distract me then because in my potential as a human being, God has blessed me with a healthy mind, healthy body, an opportunity whic... | |
to be honest to that, I have to live up to that. So for me these things are just a process, just a part of the process which is you keep moving forward, you keep taking the positive option whether you get success or not, that's irrelevant but never take a backwards step. Face the fear, look it in the eye and say, fine... | |
I'm going to have a smile on my face and I'm going to keep coming at you. And that's how I live my life as well. I don't live my life half and half. I've never done something which I'm not 100% convinced about. So for me, as I said, if you wanted me to walk away now, I'd have zero regrets in life or in cricket. But th... | |
even if you lose a test match, I want us to go for the win and not surrender or try to save a test match on day 3 or day 4. That for me is just not acceptable. So for me, as I said, milestones don't matter at all. If I had played for milestones in my career, I probably wouldn't have half of what I have right now. | |
my mindset is pretty clear and for us it's just pursuit of excellence. | |
So he really like, the amount of stress it brought onto him mentally was huge. So he had a stroke, he had a clot form in his brain and this happened around 2.30 or 3 in the morning. And we all woke up and we had no idea what to do and he was gone by the time we woke up and I literally like... | |
I literally saw him take his last breath in front of me. So he used to do online share trading. And that was something that became quite a big thing back then when in 2006, then his online share trading... | |
account suddenly crashed. So one transaction went really bad and all the transactions that he'd done before that and whatever he had accumulated sort of went down in a go. So he really like, the amount of stress it brought onto him mentally was huge. So he had a stroke, | |
form in his brain and I was I was coming back from practice and I reached the house and then my cousin sister was there and I Asked her where everyone is and she's like, this is gone for a regular checkup So I asked her where they are She told me this place and I was like take me there. So we went there and then I saw... | |
you know, in a situation that I'd never seen him before. Because it was a stroke in the brain, he wasn't able to react in a normal manner, you know. So I saw him like that and then they took him to the operation theatre and then it was a very difficult time because they did the operation, then he came back home and th... | |
left side of his body got paralyzed, left side of vision also got compromised and eventually after a couple of weeks of rehab, he got a cardiac arrest. Actually I was playing a game and we were playing one of these four day games which used to happen at the first class level and I was supposed to continue resume batti... | |
It happened around 2.30 or 3 in the morning and we all woke up and we had no idea what to do and he was gone by the time we woke up and I literally saw him take his last breath in front of me. And I tried to pump his chest and all that, nothing worked. And then there were a few doctors around in that area that we live... | |
no one opened the door because it was 3 in the morning, we couldn't get any response and then we drove him to the hospital. But by the time they tried electric shocks and everything, all those kind of things, but nothing worked, he couldn't recover at all. So my sister and my brother and my mother, they all broke down... | |
There was no emotion coming out of me and I was I just became blank I couldn't I couldn't register what just happened and then I called my coach in the morning and I asked him Or I told him what had happened and then he asked me what do you want to do? I said I want to go and play for me leaving a cricket match or som... | |
an option I ever had or I couldn't register that option in my mind. So I left the house, I hadn't cried at all, nothing, no emotion. And my family was actually feeling a bit nervous looking at me because I was showing no emotion and everyone was like, you know, crying and they were emotional. And then I went to the ga... | |
mind again and I told him what had happened he thought I was joking he didn't believe me we kept going we reached the stadium and when we reached the stadium and I sat in the change room and he told everyone what had happened so when everyone came around me to tell me we're sorry for you and that's the time I really b... | |
came out and I don't know why. I was upset because I was the umpire in the game made a wrong decision and he gave me out when I wasn't out and I was upset because I couldn't be there till the end to make my team win the game and I was really upset about that. Now I feel like it was probably the most impactful thing. | |
that happened in my life. Because I remember that day, I came back from the game. After I got out, I came back to do the cremation and all the rituals that follow. And I remember telling my brother specifically that I am going to play for my country. | |
and I am going to play this game at the highest level and there's nothing else in life that can distract me anymore. Because it was my father's vision as well, he wanted me to play at the highest level and he was really, really keen on me playing at the highest level as well. So I remember making that promise to my br... | |
became second priority after that incident, and cricket was the first priority. | |
When my back is against the wall, there's only one way for me and that's forward. And I will do everything in my power to fight my way up again. And you know your perspective in life changes every now and then. As I said, with fame, with money and with success, you know there are too many people who become close to yo... | |
but this is the guy I've always been and the beautiful thing about my journey from a young age group has been that I was part of an academy where no one was talking about that academy or that club. So for me the only way up was if someone's getting 100, I have to get 200. Otherwise, no one's gonna notice me and I had ... | |
scored so many runs that people could not ignore me because that was my only driving force and that actually came from the example that my father set for me. There was a time in my life where there was an opportunity, I was selected for under 14 Delhi team and then I was dropped at 1am because of some complications an... | |
some compensations that were done and stuff like that. So same was offered to my father as well, that if you can, maybe you can get into the team after two games. So my father straight away said, I'm not gonna pay a single penny to make him play. If he can play on his talent, so be it. If not, it's not meant to be for... | |
and then I'll take help along the way and people who have been willing and open to help me and understand who I really am. When my back is against the wall there's only one way for me and that's forward and and I will do everything in my power to fight my way up again. So the whole journey the kind of matches that hav... | |
happened that people have looked and said wow I want to do the same. It's literally me making an impact on other people through this game so that's when I realized this is my journey and and I need to do things in a very organic in a very very pure way because when you watch it on TV you can tell the difference betwee... | |
or someone playing with heart and you obviously want to repeat the same. I saw that in my heroes. So I thought, look, this is this is exactly what I need to do in life. There was not even a moment of doubt. The only way to deal with social media is I can relate that example to that 2014 tour and what happened after. I... | |
at all what people have to say about stuff that you post, stuff that you do online. At the end of the day, you have to stay true to why you did what you did. Does that make you feel happy? Is that happening with pure involvement? Is that coming from an organic source? | |
As long as that's the answer, you don't need to worry about what five people have to say about you in the comment section. Because I know for a fact people do get affected by this. People take it very, very seriously. And for me, that's just noise. At the end of the day, those are letters typed by someone in a comment... | |
and you have no idea who that person is. Stay true to who you are as an individual, realize your own potential and what you can do with your life. Utilize social media for the right reasons. Don't let it control you. Have control over it to an extent where you know exactly what you need to do with it. And me and Anush... | |
She says the same thing, don't let social media control you. You be in control of how much you want to look at it, what you want to do with it. If you've posted stuff, you don't need to bother about whether a thousand people abuse you online, whatever they have to say about you, that's just noise for me. And that's al... | |
regularly when I enter the stadium. If I start focusing on those 50,000, I can't play a ball. For me, that's an opportunity. That's an opportunity for me to say, okay, fine, things are stacked up against me, let me test myself how good I am. So I think the same thing can be applied in that regard as well. When you are... | |
you how you do. So it hit home for me you know it was like this is it because I've always been looked at as someone who is very confident, very mentally strong and you know just can endure any situation, any circumstance and | |
find a way and show us the way and sometimes what you realise is that at any given point of time in life as a human being, you really need to just take a couple of steps back and understand how you are doing, how your well-being is, where it's placed. | |
हाण लूए है। barking सढाने दjcieा। Όँंदि पहले फुत् отмет allemaal नहीं हと思います। आप तइक्रूए merchant वराहिender नदे suntatt everything is roads are roads येमरी थेंगाक fakeulla sitrana अञ बतिय मदन third strike | |
र slippery ओ Home Home Home Home Home Warm welcome R Brendan | |
for work, anything. I would tell them don't make them just play sport. Teach them. Because when I was growing up I had no idea about rules and regulations of majority of the sports around me. Now when we play cricket, you understand where the situation of the game is going. So as a fielder when you're standing in the ... | |
to make a difference here. Do you have to be five steps back or do you attack five steps more? Because you can sense that he's trying to do this particular thing, the ball might land up here and you need to be physically fit enough to be in that place to eventually make a difference. Yeah. This is all learning. This i... |
End of preview. Expand in Data Studio
- Downloads last month
- 7