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Jordan Campbell from the Athletic has dropped a Rangers squad claim that could leave Ibrox boss Giovanni van Bronckhorst delighted.

What’s the latest?

The news surrounds the Rangers squad ahead of the rest of the season and Campbell gave an update via his Twitter page, saying:

“Would take something huge to alter Rangers’ plans for the squad this season. Katic & Kelly likely to leave but everyone else will play a role.”

This should offer some comfort to Van Bronckhorst and the Rangers faithful knowing that the squad is settled and ready to embark on yet another gruelling campaign.

More signings look unlikely

Following a tepid start to the summer transfer window, there has been an influx of activity during the previous three weeks which has given the Ibrox side a solid spine to the squad.

Ben Davies, Antonio Colak, Tom Lawrence, Rabbi Matondo, and Malik Tillman arrived at Ibrox as the Dutchman gave the side somewhat of a makeover, with the inevitable departures of Joe Aribo and Calvin Bassey, new replacements were required.

The Gers defeated Union Saint-Gilloise 3-2 on aggregate to reach the Champions League play-off round where Dutch side PSV Eindhoven await them.

The comeback victory will have given the team confidence ahead of the mouth-watering tie and shows that Van Bronckhorst’s side appears to be gelling together quite well.

The manager has also had somewhat of a clear out of fringe players this summer, with Glenn Middleton, Jack Simpson, Cedric Itten, and Andy Firth all departing the club and freeing up space for the new faces.

Campbell’s update also states that Nikola Katic and Stephen Kelly are also likely to leave as first-team football appears unlikely for the pair. With Alex Lowry and Leon King likely to continue their development in the first team this season, it proves there is a pathway from academy to senior football at the club.

Van Bronckhorst will be delighted at how his squad is shaping up, despite the performances in the first couple of matches falling short of the high Ibrox standard. St Johnstone awaits at Ibrox tomorrow ahead of the crucial Champions League first leg on Tuesday and three points will be expected.

Tottenham Hotspur could make a late splash in the transfer window…

What’s the word?

That’s according to transfer insider Dean Jones, who has been told to expect Spurs to do some more business before deadline day on September 1st.

“I’ve been told to look out for Tottenham signing a luxury player towards the back end of the window,” he revealed to GIVEMESPORT.

“They’re getting their main business done now, but Tottenham always go into the window in that last ten days, that last week, because they just love to be involved in that and see if they can get one more that boosts morale, and that’s the sort of thing that might happen this summer as well.”

Reason to be excited

This claim from the Eurosport journalist will surely raise excitement amongst the Lilywhites faithful as Spurs supporters can surely anticipate a late arrival to their squad for the 2022/23 campaign.

History tells us that this could indeed be the case, too.

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Sporting director Fabio Paratici signed both Dejan Kulusevski and Rodrigo Bentancur from Juventus on deadline day during the January transfer window, and similarly, Emerson Royal joined from Barcelona on last summer’s deadline day.

It remains to be seen exactly who Spurs will target as that ‘luxury’ signing, though there are plenty of interesting names potentially still out there.

Paulo Dybala remains a free agent, the likes of Pau Torres and Gleison Bremer continue to be linked as further defensive upgrades, and there have been other mooted left-field targets such as Nicolo Zaniolo and Jesse Lingard.

Any of the aforementioned players could hit a chord with fans at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in the final week of the window and as such, there’s plenty to be excited about, having already signed five players.

It is evident, however, that Spurs are nowhere near done with their summer spending, so supporters will surely be buzzing about what lies ahead in the coming weeks.

AND in other news, Spurs leading the race to sign £45m-rated “extraordinary talent”, he’s a Bonucci clone…

Alexander Isak is on Newcastle United’s radar, according to The Daily Mail’s Simon Jones. 

The lowdown

Newcastle had hoped to sign young striker Hugo Ekitike from Reims after agreeing a £25million deal.

But that move is thought to be all but dead after the Magpies were hit with ‘ridiculous’ demands by the player’s agent.

Real Sociedad’s Isak, formerly of Borussia Dortmund, is still fairly young himself at 22. The centre-forward signed a new contract last summer that runs until 2026 and contains a £77million release clause.

The latest

Newcastle are now ready to move onto other targets after losing patience with Ekitike’s camp.

Isak is one of the players that the club’s recruitment department have considered, alongside Chelsea forward Armando Broja and Italy number nine Gianluca Scamacca.

However, a fee of more than £40million is likely to be ‘prohibitive’ given that Newcastle are operating under Financial Fair Play constraints.

The verdict

You can see why Newcastle are interested in Isak. He reached double figures for goals last season (ten), taking him to 43 in 128 appearances overall for Sociedad.

But he offers more than just end-product. He’s also effective when it comes to running with the ball, ranking in the 95th percentile among positional peers for dribbles completed and the 77th for progressive carries (via FBRef).

He’s of a similar mould to the likes of Marko Arnautovic and Dusan Vlahovic, a quick and powerful forward with deceptively good feet.

Isak impressed the watching world at the European Championships last summer, with Gary Lineker calling the Sweden forward an ‘exceptional talent’.

Perhaps they might stick with Callum Wilson and Chris Wood as their no. 9 options for the moment and revisit Isak in a future window, when the price tag has hopefully dropped well below the initial release clause.

Manchester United have made an offer to sign Christian Eriksen on a free transfer, according to David Ornstein.

The Lowdown: Eriksen’s impressive Premier League return

Eriksen made a move back to England with Brentford at the beginning of the year, penning a contract until the end of the season.

It didn’t take long for Eriksen to catch the eye with the Bees, with Gary Neville labelling the midfielder’s passing as ‘out of this world’.

The 30-year-old won seven games in 11 starts with Brentford, contributing to five goals mainly from a slightly deeper midfield role than we’re used to seeing him. He is now weighing up his next move, and it looks as if Erik ten Hag is keen to bring the Denmark international to Old Trafford.

The Latest: Ornstein’s reveal

Ornstein took to Twitter on Tuesday afternoon to provide a significant update on Eriksen’s future.

The reliable reporter revealed that United have ‘made an offer’ for the midfielder, with Barcelona’s Frenkie de Jong still a priority.

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The Verdict: Shrewd move

United could do with midfield additions following confirmed exits for Paul Pogba, Jesse Lingard and Juan Mata, leaving Bruno Fernandes as the only recognised senior attacking midfielder.

Eriksen would give Ten Hag another high-quality attacking midfield option who has plenty of experience in the Premier League and in Europe.

He’d also be able to turn out in a deeper role or out wide, and after showing last season he still has the quality to star in England, a free transfer could turn out to be an excellent piece of business.

In other news: Same agent as Ronaldo: Man Utd now close to ‘special’ signing, move is ‘imminent’. 

There has been mounting speculation about Wolverhampton Wanderers player Adama Traore’s future this summer, and now a new update has emerged that could see him leave the club this summer.

What’s the latest?

According to Football Insider, Everton have registered their interest in signing Adama Traore ahead of the transfer window.

As per the report, a recruitment source has told the publication that the Merseyside club are keeping tabs on the winger’s situation and remain interested.

Traore’s time is up

After a disappointing first half of the season, Traore was shipped off to La Liga via Barcelona in a six-month loan deal and now it is reported that the Spanish club does not want to trigger the clause to make his move permanent, so Bruno Lage needs to find other options as Traore’s time is up at Wolves.

The Portuguese manager has already confirmed that the squad needs to be strengthened and changes need to be made to compete again next season for a chance at European football, something they narrowly missed by just five points in the previous Premier League campaign, finishing tenth.

Lage admitted (via Birmingham Live): “Some players will go for sure. We will replace them and in my opinion we have some gaps to fill.”

The £20m flop who was branded “poor” by Tim Spiers had little to no impact in the first half of the season, scoring one goal and contributing no assists, whilst losing the ball every 3.1 of his 30.5 touches on average per game over 20 league appearances.

Tony Cascarino claimed on talkSPORT the player has deteriorated over the last few seasons, saying:

“His numbers are terrible, which is always concerning.

“He got three the season before that in all competitions and six the season before that. So he’s actually gone backwards in the last few years.”

Traore was quickly pushed out of the starting line-up after Hwang Hee-Chan blossomed on the left wing and was given a permanent deal in January following his impressive performances, scoring four goals within six league games, so there seems to be no way back for the outcasted winger.

With that being said, it is likely to be in the best interests of both the club and Traore to part ways this summer and they should accept any offer made for the player to put towards new signings that can come in and make a big impact on Wolves next season.

AND in other news: Imagine him & Kilman: Lage can form scary Wolves duo by signing “astonishing” £25m ace

Tottenham Hotspur are interested in a deal to bring Yannick Carrasco to the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in the summer transfer window.

What’s the word?

That’s according to a claim made by Juanfe Sanz (via Sport Witness), with the El Chiringuito journalist suggesting that Fabio Paratici has now submitted an offer to Atletico Madrid regarding a deal for the versatile left-winger.

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Sport Witness go on to state that the 28-year-old has a release clause of €60m (£51m) written into his contract at the Wanda Metropolitano Stadium, with Spurs reported to have been willing to pay this figure in the January transfer window.

Carrasco would be “unreal” for Spurs

Considering just how impressive Carrasco has been for Atleti this season, it is not difficult to understand why Antonio Conte would be interested in a deal to bring the forward to north London this summer.

Indeed, over his 33 LaLiga appearances in the current campaign, the £42.5m-rated winger – who can also be deployed at left midfield or left wing-back – has been in sensational form for Diego Simeone’s side, scoring six goals, registering six assists and creating nine big chances for his teammates, as well as taking an average of 1.5 shots, making 1.5 key passes and completing 2.6 dribbles per game.

The £141k-per-week Belgium international has also impressed in a defensive capacity, making an average of 0.6 interceptions, 0.9 tackles, 0.4 clearances and winning 4.9 duels – at a success rate of 51% – per fixture.

These returns have seen the player who Josh Bunting dubbed “underrated” and Phil Kitromilides labelled “unreal” average a quite remarkable SofaScore match rating of 7.07, ranking him as Atletico’s third-best performer in the Spanish top flight.

Furthermore, according to FBref data, the 28-year-old also ranks in the top 1% of wing-backs in Europe’s big five leagues for dribbles completed per 90, as well as the top 1% for npxG, the top 2% for shots, the top 2% for shot-creating actions, the top 5% for progressive carries and the top 2% for npxG+xA over the last 365 days.

As such, it is clear for all to see that Carrasco would be something of an unreal fit for Conte’s left wing-back role at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, leading us to believe that Paratici must do everything he can to convince the Belgian of a move to north London this summer.

AND in other news: Paratici could land Kulu 2.0 as Spurs eye £17m signing, he would “explode” under Conte

West Ham United wasted an ideal chance to get rid of Manuel Lanzini during the summer transfer window and will now have to wait until the January transfer window to sell the Argentine.

After the club-record signing of Lucas Paqueta from Olympique Lyon, it seems as if playing time will be hard to come by for the 29-year-old this season.

According to Football Insider, Moyes was willing to let Lanzini leave the London Stadium on loan but there were very few reports about his potential departure on deadline day.

The attacking midfielder is one of the top earners at West Ham on £70k per week but his performances simply haven’t justified that in recent seasons.

Last season saw the midfielder contribute five goals and three assists in 30 Premier League appearances, averaging a less than impressive 6.64 rating from WhoScored for his performances.

This season has seen Moyes use the Argentine far less frequently, with his only start coming in the opening game against Manchester City, when he earned an extremely disappointing 5.84 rating from WhoScored.

Lanzini will now have to compete with Paqueta, Pablo Fornals and Said Benrahama for a starting spot in attacking midfield, and he currently looks to be bottom of that pecking order, so it is disappointing that Moyes couldn’t move him on during the transfer window, as he may end up being a waste of a wage.

Lanzini’s 5.93 average rating from his three appearances this season is the worst of any outfield player, so it seems clear that he is no longer good enough to be a regular starter with the Hammers.

Considering his contract at the London Stadium is set to expire at the end of this season, meaning he will be free to negotiate with foreign clubs from January, this summer really was the ideal opportunity for Moyes to get rid of Lanzini, and sadly he wasted it.

Yet another abject first-innings performance against top-class opposition has left the team management with more headaches

Daniel Brettig in Abu Dhabi17-Oct-2018For a stadium in the middle of the UAE desert, some 12,000 km from Sydney and Melbourne, there was an awful lot familiar to Australians on the second day in Abu Dhabi.On the public address system was a playlist of pub rock hewn straight out of FM radio, from AC/DC, Midnight Oil and Powderfinger, to the inescapable strains of Darryl Braithwaite and Jimmy Barnes. Underfoot was a pitch still with a smattering of live grass, enough for seamers and spinners to gain deviation and pace from if good enough. And on the scoreboard was an Australian Test team producing a substandard first innings for the fifth match in a row. Unsurprisingly, none of them has ended in victory.While the Dubai version, losing 10 for 60 having been 0 for 142, was more dramatic, the steady slide to 145 here answered one question left hanging after the first Test: how would this lineup fare on days when Usman Khawaja goes cheaply?His early exit on the first evening, to a leg-side strangle caught wonderfully by Sarfraz Ahmed, gave Pakistan their opening, and further clarified the gulf left by the banned Steven Smith and David Warner. Aaron Finch continued to make a useful fist of his delayed start to Test cricket before being successfully worn down for the third time in as many innings, but the rest fell swiftly and in fashions that were largely reminiscent of the sorts of challenges faced by batsmen in Australia.In the right hand of the wonderfully skillful Mohammad Abbas, the red Kookaburra ball nibbled a little bit each way off the aforementioned live grass, with enough carry to result in Shaun Marsh and Travis Head falling to the first two slips catches off the pacemen for the series. Flung from the cocked wrist of Yasir Shah, the same ball bounced and turned just enough to ensure the vice-captain Mitchell Marsh’s open bat face offered another catch to slip. All dismissals might have taken place as readily in Adelaide as Abu Dhabi, something further underlined by how Nathan Lyon had utilised top spin on the first day. Another experienced member of the Australian attack, Peter Siddle, will wonder why he was unable to be as effective as Abbas.In some ways, the conditions the Australians faced were a long way from those they had spent two weeks preparing for at the ICC Global Academy in Dubai. Certainly, the grass on the surface had caused the captain Tim Paine and the tour selectors Justin Langer and Trevor Hohns enough pause to wait until match day before deciding to keep the same XI they had fielded in the first Test. Batsmen who had trained for reverse swing, low bounce and slow turn found nothing of the sort here, particularly in the morning session, when overnight dew appeared to both liven up the surface and slow down the outfield.But that same grass and moisture is far more common to cricket in Australia than in Asia, meaning that the touring team should have gained some sort of advantage from them. And perhaps they would have, without another example of an endemic problem in terms of batting quality when confronted with high-class performers from around the world. When he was quizzed about Australian batting collapses in the wake of the Dubai escape, the assistant coach Graeme Hick had pointed out that while starting an innings was difficult in Asian climes, this team’s problems with losing wickets in a rush was far from a problem confined to this part of the world. “I’m not saying we’ve only had collapses in the subcontinent. It’s been pretty rife.”That rifeness, which included seven instances of 10 wickets falling for fewer than 100 runs in the little more than two years since the 2016 tour of Sri Lanka, has also featured another more recent trend, stretching back to the start of the fateful South African tour. Since the first Test of the series in Durban, Australia’s first-innings tallies have been 351 in 110.4 overs, 243 in 71.3 in Port Elizabeth, 255 in 69.5 in Cape Town, 221 in 70 in Johannesburg, 202 in 83.3 in Dubai, and now 145 in 50.4 in Abu Dhabi.Even including Kingsmead, that means a rounded average of 236 per innings. Over the long and eventful history of Test cricket, the average first-innings score by winning teams is 376. In Asia, it is higher still, at 388. Either way, the Australians have fallen well short of the mark, and they started doing so at the time a mentally and physically fatigued Smith and Warner began dropping off from the sort of productivity the rest of the team had become used to. With no prospect of recalling either until April next year, the spotlight is then left upon the rest who, apart from Khawaja, look either to be still developing or struggling to match the required standard.Getty Images”I think that first innings is always key to set up the game,” Finch said. “We’ve seen Pakistan in the first Test go really big in the first innings and that gives them freedom in the second innings to play as aggressive as they want or as conservative as they want and then the game’s in your hand. You can pull out when you want and declare. Same again in this game, we’ve left ourselves a little bit too far behind the game.”So as soon as [Fakhar] Zaman comes out and plays aggressively and takes the game away in a few overs, then all of a sudden you’re unsure whether to keep your catchers in or retreat and try to control the scoreboard. That’s the beauty of going big in your first innings, you control the game. It goes a long way to winning games. Traditionally, wickets do get harder and harder to bat on, so we’ve probably left ourselves a little bit too much work to do at the back end of games in the past, which no doubt we’ll address and, hopefully, going forward we can keep improving on that.”For Langer, in particular, this will mean a few searching questions about several of the players he has identified as critical to the intervening months, none more so than Shaun and Mitchell Marsh. In the corresponding six Tests, they have cobbled their runs at averages of 14.27 and 18.27 respectively, with the younger brother’s 96 at Durban the only score beyond 50 for either. It was a statistic about reaching scores above 30 that caused rumbles following the selection of Australia’s Test squad, but another at the international level places the Marsh brothers in still harsher light.Among all players to have played Tests for Australia since 2011, Mitchell Marsh (42%) and Shaun Marsh (38.98%) both make the top five in terms of highest percentage of single-figure scores in that time. By comparison, Smith (22.02%) and Warner (21.17%) round out the top 10 despite being the only two players to have compiled more than 100 innings over the same period.The boom-or-bust nature of these figures will beg the question of whether Australia, with the team’s current profile, can sustain such inconsistency in the hope that the big innings Shaun and Mitchell Marsh do occasionally provide will result in victories. On commentary, Mike Hussey suggested that Shaun Marsh may be better suited to No. 5, where he batted successfully during the Ashes last summer, and Mitchell Marsh to No. 6 – both positions, of course, were theirs in a world where Warner was opening and Smith was No. 4.For the remainder of day two, there were more wearyingly familiar sights and sounds for Australians – the bowlers in particular. Mitchell Starc, clearly sore and stiff from his exertions already in the series, could manage only one spell with so little recovery time, while Pakistan took progressively more liberties with Siddle. Lyon and Jon Holland bowled decently, but without any scoreboard pressure to help them. And Marnus Labuschagne was unable to repeat the breakthroughs of day one.Another tune had rung throughout the stadium during the lunch break, at a time when the Australians had already given up their first-innings advantage. It was Holy Grail by Hunters and Collectors, beloved by the producers of sporting montages but actually a rather downbeat set of lyrics about the abortive retreat of Napoleon’s army from Russia in 1812. In the familiar hole the Australians found themselves in, they could reflect on the song’s bridge:

South Africa outdid Australia in the fast bowling department, the lower middle-order contributions and the number of centuries scored

S Rajesh28-Nov-201621.64 The bowling average for South Africa’s fast bowlers in the series, compared to 29.77 for Australia’s pace attack. Kagiso Rabada, Kyle Abbott and Vernon Philander accounted for 40 of those 42 wickets, at 20.30. Australia’s pace attack had a combined average of 29.77. Mitchell Starc and Josh Hazlewood, Australia’s leading fast bowlers, had a combined tally of 31 wickets at 25.71. Each team’s spinners took seven wickets collectively, at 50-plus averages (52.42 for Australia, and 58.14 for South Africa). Fast bowlers accounted for more than 85% of the total wickets for each team.82 Total wickets taken by the fast bowlers in the series. There have been only three three-Test series in Australia in which fast bowlers have taken more wickets, and all of them were between 1979 and 1982; two of those featured West Indies.

5 Hundreds for South Africa, out of the six in the series. Australia’s only centurion was Usman Khawaja, while five batsmen got hundreds for South Africa – Dean Elgar, JP Duminy, Quinton de Kock, Faf du Plessis and Stephen Cook. (Click here for South Africa’s batting and bowling stats, and here for Australia’s.)

41.25 The average partnership for South Africa’s fifth to eighth wickets; for Australia, the average for those wickets was only 17.15. In 20 partnerships for these wickets, South Africa’s batsmen scored 825 runs, with de Kock being the key contributor: he scored 281 from five innings, and received fine support from Temba Bavuma and Philander in these middle and lower-order partnerships. In contrast, Australia managed only 343 runs in 20 such partnerships. The difference in these partnership numbers was a key reason for South Africa’s series triumph; for the first four wickets Australia had a marginally higher average – 37.82, to South Africa’s 34.05.

100% Success rate for Richard Kettleborough with DRS appeals made against his decisions in Hobart and Adelaide, the two Tests in which he was the on-field umpire in the series. In all, 11 of his decisions were challenged, but none of his calls were overturned. In contrast, the success rate was only 50% for Aleem Dar (six out of 12), and 68.75% for Nigel Llong (11 out of 16).5 Number of times Hazlewood dismissed Hashim Amla in this series, the most times a bowler got a batsman out. The next highest was Starc’s four dismissals of Cook, conceding only 43 from 134 balls. Elgar struggled against Starc as well. There were five instances of a bowler dismissing a batsman three or more times in the series, and they were all by Starc or Hazlewood.97 Runs scored by de Kock against Nathan Lyon, the most by any batsman against a bowler in the series. Lyon didn’t dismiss de Kock even once, though he had him in some trouble in Adelaide. There were only two other instances of a batsman scoring 50-plus runs against a bowler without being dismissed – Warner against Rabada, and Bavuma against Starc.

M Vijay opens up about what makes him happy, the life lessons he taught himself as a teenager, and his approach to batting

Interview by Arun Venugopal21-Sep-201520:29

‘My simple thing is if you are good enough you’ll play’

How’s the hamstring?
I have been working on my rehabilitation. I think three weeks. I am in a good state now.Is it particularly frustrating to be injured at this point of your career when your batting is on the upswing?
Definitely. When you miss something at a crucial juncture of your career it’s tough at times, but you cannot do too many things about it because injuries do happen in any sport. You’ve got to take it in your stride and move forward.In the last couple of years, is there one particular innings or a session which you look back on and think, “This is where I turned things around”?
The Chennai Test match in 2013, the second innings, I really gave it a thought as a person and as a cricketer. I had been getting starts and giving it away, and there were different reasons, lots of variables behind it. At the end of the day, I was disappointed with not applying myself. You get opportunities at the international level what many people are craving for and you are missing out on it. All these factors came into my head and I got my answers in Hyderabad.How difficult was it to process all those thoughts and respond?
At that point I was really disappointed and had four-five days gap before the next Test match. I was hoping to get an opportunity there. The moment I got the feeling that I was going to play, I said, “This is it. This is for me. I just don’t want to do something really out of the box.” I just wanted to stick to my plans and if a good ball comes, so be it.I just wanted to go in and be as tight as possible, and I felt happy after that knock because I really gave it a thought and I did not play the way I wanted to play, but still got my runs.”I never think about what others say, or what you say about me”•AFPJust before the England tour you spent a lot of time with your coach, Jayakumar. Could you elaborate on what you were working on?
I was just thinking about my fitness and the conditions we would be playing in, the venues and stuff like that. That was going to be my first experience and I always wanted to play in England, at Lord’s especially, and it was just about to happen and I didn’t want to miss out by not being fit. I was concentrating on my fitness, and batting-wise I was checking on my basics, and he really helped me out during that particular phase.What were the specific things you did to cope with the moving ball?
I couldn’t get the same kind of feel in Chennai because the conditions are entirely different, but all I could do was to practise early in the morning when there is a little bit of moisture on the wicket.You used the plastic ball?
I don’t really use the plastic ball, but bowling machines helped me get an idea of how it’s going to go and how you maintain your shape.You are comfortable leaving the ball, but a lot of batsmen love to feel bat on ball all the time. Is leaving the ball as natural for you as it looks or did you have to work on it?
Every time I walk in to bat, I want to play as many balls as possible, but if it is not in my range, I will leave it. My intention is to play, but maybe I’m a little more cautious about my off stump. Maybe I could play a little more freely. If I can get 100 off 100 balls, I’m going to take it any day. I am just waiting for that moment to come.

“I wasn’t a great student. People around me were brilliant. I wouldn’t call myself a dumb guy, but I was not interested in it [academics]”

You always talk about playing a particular delivery and then switching off. How easy is it to focus on the moment alone?
It’s very difficult, but that’s what you are practising for. You practise batting for two or three hours in a day, and if you don’t believe in that then you are never going to perform, so you obviously have to let your mind and body take over in the middle rather than thinking too much ahead of it.Off the field do you do something to achieve that? Do you meditate?
Just the belief inside you – like everybody says, you’ve got to be in the now. It’s very difficult to even think about it. But all I can do is be in a happy space, do the things you really like to do and talk to yourself, motivate yourself. Because there’s no one else to help you there [in the middle].Do you talk to yourself before every ball, psych yourself up?
Not in the middle. Just the day before or something like that. In the middle, you enjoy, go out there and express yourself. That’s what I try to do, watch the ball and focus. So long it has been good.How does your visualisation process work?
I like to see things before they happen and I get a feel inside. I enjoy that if I am in that space. For me to get into that space, I need to practise. If I have done every bit of it in my practice, I think I attain it more often than not. I never keep a target and I go with a blank mind. I could get a triple-hundred, why restrict it to a hundred?As an opener, who are your reference points? Who have you tried to imbibe from?
I always liked Mark Waugh. Because he made everything look easy. He played in a fashion where everything was in rhythm. I really liked him as a youngster.I had the opportunity to share the dressing room with some of the greats. I loved the way Sachin [Tendulkar] carried himself throughout his career. I had a great opportunity to interact with him and see how he does things in different situations, so he inspired me a lot. MS Dhoni for the way he handled himself in pressure situations. [But] I didn’t want to emulate Sachin or MS. You have to pick and choose [the best attributes from each of them] and do it in your own style.Looking ahead to the South Africa series, what are you looking to get out of it?
I’m pretty excited. The only one thing I’m concentrating on at the moment is my fitness. I’m on the right track and happy about it. But I am not thinking too far ahead because there’s a month and a half to go for the Test series. All I am trying to do is work on my batting basics, my fitness and my fielding aspect of where I am going to stand.”Myself and Shikhar Dhawan are very close friends off the field. We share a lot of things apart from cricket”•AFPHow exciting is this batting group you are playing alongside? Do you compete amongst yourselves?
It’s been unbelievable because everybody is talented. It’s a healthy competition. The season and a half where we played abroad got us together. The thought process was similar, and everybody wanted to go in one direction. A lot of good things happened to us. [Even when we were losing] the atmosphere never changed. That’s one good quality and a learning for me as well, because no one even showed any hint that he was down and out. Because everybody is on the same wavelength and the same age group, it’s easy to crack a joke in a tight situation.What do you guys bond over? PlayStation?
Yes, at the moment I’m into PlayStation because that’s the only way to get into my friends’ rooms. Because everybody goes and plays PlayStation, we just try to do that as a team. It’s been good.As a batting group, is there also friendly banter where you say, “Okay, I’m going to outscore you two guys”, or things like that?
I don’t know about that because I never think that way. If Shikhar [Dhawan] is getting runs, I would like to give him the credit, like “You are batting brilliantly”. And vice-versa. That’s what he does to me. There’s nothing like, “You get 150, I get 180.” It’s about going together and going for the same cause.As a unit we are more tight now. It’s a good journey for us. Staying away from home and everything else gave us an opportunity to mingle and go about things in the right way.How have your interactions with the coaching staff been?
They have really helped us in getting a good atmosphere in the dressing room because I feel you should feel comfortable inside the dressing room to do well outside.

“I believe in love, and it’s obviously helped me as a person”

Ravi Shastri is known to be very direct.
Ravi has his own style of putting it across. He lifts the mood 100%, the energy you get onto the table. I think he has come at the right time. It’s all fallen in place. Everybody is trying to do his best to give us the best atmosphere.You have also known Sanjay Bangar from your time at Kings XI Punjab. Has he picked up little things in your batting you might not have noticed?
Yes, we always try to have a conversation about batting because he’s one guy who is never tired of talking about a particular aspect. More or less everybody, when we are off [the field], we keep discussing, “Oh, we could have done this, we could have done that.” He has always been there for us which is good.There was a time when you were out of the national team. What was the most difficult aspect during that phase?
That’s when I really thought you cannot think too much about anything. What’s happened has happened. You’ve just got to take it in your stride but move forward in a positive way. That’s all you can do as a person, because everybody is going to face problems in their lives. Life is much bigger, sport is just a phase of it.Did you try to seek out the selectors and gather their thoughts on what you needed to do to get back into the team?
Obviously I was disappointed not to be part of the World Cup. I knew I needed to get answers for that in my head first than searching it outside. My simple thing is, if you are good enough, you’ll play. I didn’t find any desperation to go and ask someone. If you are good enough and if you are practising well, and if you think you are good enough to express yourself in the middle, it’s more than enough.Rolling back the years, as a 17-year-old you took the drastic step of moving out of your parents’ house after flunking your Class XII exams. How did your parents react, especially since you are very close to your mother?
Actually I should thank my dad, even now I do. () That particular phase, if he had stopped me, I would have been a different person altogether. Not protected, but maybe I would have chosen a different field or I would have not got into cricket. I would have done something else in another extreme, but I am never a safe person.Living in a single room with two other people and having to fend for oneself doesn’t quite sound like fun…
That’s what happened. I cannot change that, and I enjoyed it. I don’t have any regrets. There was no hardship. At that particular moment I thought I should experience life and learn because I wasn’t a great student. People around me were brilliant. I wouldn’t call myself a dumb guy, but I was not interested in it [academics]. My interests were different. That did not synchronise properly with my parents and everything.I really gave it a thought and said, “What am I doing?” I didn’t get through my 12th, so basically I didn’t know anything. My father was comforting me too much because whatever I asked, he gave me, and I didn’t like that too. I had one year to complete my 12th, so I thought, let me go and live alone and see how it is. Even my close friends ask me today what I was doing back then. It’s a good feeling and you can’t tell your experiences like, “This is what happened.” It’s a nice feeling that it happened and I enjoyed it.”I want to play as many balls as possible, but if it is not in my range, I will leave it”•Getty ImagesIs it more like a riches-to-rags-to-riches story for you then?
I never believe in being rich or being low. It’s just about the way you live your life and you should be happy. [This experience gave me] immense happiness, being alone, enjoying the freedom, there is nobody to go and fall back on.There is this persona of Vijay with the tattoos and the swagger. You said once that you felt you weren’t picked for the state side because you had long hair. Is it an accurate assessment that you are a rebel?
I don’t believe in judging anybody. That’s my personal learning. Everybody has their own perception and nobody has time to prove things to everybody. So then why talk about it? If someone has done something and you can appreciate it, appreciate it, or else just move on. I am no one to go and give my view on what he has done. I built my kind of life accordingly, and it’s giving me happiness. I don’t know the definition of happiness. I just want to be happy, feel happy. I don’t go deep into anything.Sometimes on the field there are some theatrics. Once in an airport you did a Michael Jackson impression. Are these things you do to make people accept you?
Are you trying to say if you are going to wear a funky dress you are trying to attract anybody or do you wear it for yourself? I never think about what others say or what you say about me. It’s just about what I feel at that particular moment, about what I want to do. If I can do it, I am happy. I don’t want to go into your space and say, “Come and look at me.” I don’t really enjoy that.Doesn’t this mindset come with difficulties? Do you think you are misunderstood often?
I don’t that way because I don’t really have that much time to think about what someone is thinking about me. If I’m at practice, I like to practice. If I am out with my family, I like to enjoy with them. It is easy if you think it’s easy. It [perception] will change. Everything has to change. That’s the only thing that is permanent. If you are silent, people think you are arrogant. If you are silent, then people think, “Oh, he is thinking about something.” Silence gives you so many answers for one small reaction.M Vijay scored two big hundreds against Australia in 2013, which was his comeback series•BCCIHow much have love and relationships mattered to you? How have they moulded you as a person?
I believe in love. It’s obviously helped me as a person, and I am thankful I am leading a good life at the moment because I went through hardships. I am thankful to the almighty because I believe in that, and I believe in time, so everything happened for a reason.What kind of character are you in the India dressing room? Are you the joker or the introvert, or are you the serious, brooding variety?
I really don’t know. I enjoy everything and everybody’s company. I like to be among them and see them laugh. I don’t like to sit in one place and be quiet. But I don’t know whether I’m a fun person. You should ask my team-mates.What are the things you have learnt from your team-mates about life in general?For example, myself and Shikhar [Dhawan] are very close friends off the field. We share a lot of things apart from cricket. We have a mutual liking for things and discuss particular topics. I like to discuss things rather than argue. If it’s an argument, I just call it a day. () I don’t want to get into trouble. I never confront anybody. If I know I have made a mistake, I will put my hand up and accept the fact.What are the things outside the game that help you get your focus back on cricket?
I honestly believe there’s life after cricket. There’s a lot to learn, a lot of things to see. It’s just a phase of my life I have chosen, so obviously I love to do something in a field I really love. And if it doesn’t happen, it doesn’t matter to me really. Because I am honestly giving my effort and trying to learn things, and pushing myself to an extent where I can feel that I have done everything. The result is like a by-product for me.Do you have heroes outside cricket?
I like [the actor] Kamal Haasan. I am a great fan of him. Obviously Rajini sir [Rajinikanth] as well, but I like Kamal sir a little more. It’s just the connect. I don’t know much about acting. I hardly even see movies, but you know, the interviews where he has spoken about a similar topic that’s running in your head. All these factors overall make him special.What are the other things that keep you in the happy space you talk about?
I love to play other sports. I love snooker. Unfortunately I can’t play [now] because of my hamstring. I am not able to surf now because of that as well. I like to experience other sports and adventure sports that give me an adrenaline rush and make me challenge myself. I don’t want to miss out on those as well, playing one sport.Has your life changed with two young children? Are you a hands-on father?
They are keeping me on my toes. I am just trying to give as much time as possible. Changing diapers and singing rhymes is a learning too for me.