For any kid growing up in the 1990s, Ajay Jadeja was the OG poster boy of finishing games, throwing himself around on the field, and doing all that with an infectious smile on his face. With MI Emirates now as the Batting Coach, he talks about a whole range of subjects in an exclusive interview with miemirates.com ahead of the second season of ILT20. Excerpts..

A week into the MI OneFamily…how are you finding it? How’s the prep going?

Really excited for the season to start. The mood has been getting better and better. There have been players arriving every day, and just like the more sugar you add, the better it gets. It is getting to the pinnacle. The MI culture is something I am also trying to absorb. But as it says, One Family, the family has only grown. The preparation has been as good as it gets. I am a firm believer that when you all sit together, the conversations and the team bonding will start growing even more. 

You’ve played a lot of ODI cricket in Sharjah in your career. What do you make of the conditions now?

The general conditions remain the same, the weather, the dew, the ball generally swings more in the evenings, it stays flat in the day. But the real conditions you play with is the surface. And the surface always changes over the years. You always think, ‘Oh I know what is there’, but only when you turn up you realise the changes made. Sometimes groundsmen could have used extra urea because of which the grass has grown differently, sometimes they could’ve added some sand to the soil. The grounds are different, Sharjah’s outfield is slower, in Abu Dhabi, the wind plays a part, so minute details like these would be discussed with the players. 

What are the mantras you swear by as a coach? Are you a data person?

As a coach, I am definitely a human connection person, but data always tells you a story. You need to take that data, to analyse, make strategies, convince a player. If you are trying to learn something in life or get better, you would be stupid not to use data. But you cannot rely on it alone. You need to use your own AI. As you know after data comes AI. Data is the past, and it is a fact. It is then about how you use your head to analyse it. Data isn’t as extensive as it should be. There in fact should be more that should be charted. Therefore comes the human aspect to the sport which the data doesn’t tell you. 

Apart from that, I always try making players feel comfortable and welcome, irrespective of where they come from. While speaking to Vijay (Vijaykanth Vyaskanth), I try and squeeze in some words of Tamil to make him feel at home. That is our job. You cannot teach someone at the highest professional level to bat. Their games are already set. We may have different tag to our names, but we all work together, make them comfortable. 

A word on Nicholas Pooran, the MI Emirates skipper

I have watched Pooran over the years playing cricket. If there is a player who makes batting look so easy, it is him. As a leader as well, he wants there to be the easy feel with all the players. He enjoys that. He is a man of fewer words and more action. 

You were one of the best finishers that India had in the 1990s, and this is some sort of an epic reunion with the Ajay Jadeja-Robin Singh partnership back. How do you look at the finishing aspect of our team? There are plenty of big guns in there.. 

Our Head Coach, Robin Singh, is someone who I partnered a lot with in my playing days. You might call us me the finisher for the Indian team, but I firmly believe there is no one man who finishes games. You are always a good team that finishes matches. Just for an example, the Afghanistan-Australia game in the 2023 World Cup. I was in the Afghan dressing room. The match just doesn’t go out of my mind. We had them seven down. Everybody gives credit to Glenn Maxwell, but what about the other guy (Pat Cummins). I look at that part of the game differently. I hope our guys in the team also look at it that way, and we would have more success as a team. Having two, is always easier than one person doing it. 

Each one of our players is an MVP, they are world champions, and I just hope we come out as winners as a team.