Royal Challengers Bangalore has always been a very colourful team of IPL. Having been owned by Vijay Mallya initially, that’s not surprising but the band of cricket they played over the years made them a colourful unit too. After KKR if there is another team that is backed by passionate fans, it’s RCB. Unfortunately over the last 2 years, due to the ongoing pandemic, spectators have been kept out of the tournament and hence we have lost that fervour of crowd support which is such an integral part of IPL.

RCB is one of those teams which is yet to win the tournament and though reaching the finals on quite a few occasions the coveted trophy has still been out of reach. Their team composition has always let them down and their over-dependency on the top order led to many a meltdown in important matches. Will it change this year? Let’s first see how does their first XI shape up.

Here is my best XI for RCB:

Devdutt Padikkal

Virat Kohli

AB DeVilliers

Glenn Maxwell

Washington Sundar

Sachin Baby

Dan Christian

Kyle Jamieson

Yuzvendra Chahal

Nitin Saini

Md. Siraj

SWOT analysis of RCB:

Strength: Their top order has always been their strength and it’s no different this time around too. They have had some high profile sign-ups this year and one of them is Glenn Maxwell. Maxwell has always flattered to deceive when it comes to IPL and RCB will hope that it’s a break out year for him. Virat Kohli, AB Devilliers, Devdutt Padikkal and Glenn Maxwell makes an awesome top 4 and any opposition could be intimidated with such a top order. Their pace bowling resources are also very good with a lot of like-for-like replacements on the bench.

Weakness: The middle order is weak. Not only in the first XI but on the bench too. Secondly, you can’t have like-for-like replacements for the top order they have. This is a big disadvantage. The spin bowling department looks relatively weak especially with Yuzvendra Chahal not looking the Chahal of old in the last couple of months. Adam Zampa would be a better choice but that would mean sacrificing a foreign all-rounder. How they balance this out would be interesting to see once the tournament starts.

Opportunity: Devdutt Padikkal had a great debut season in 2020 and he has been in tremendous form in the domestic circuit. To be frank, I was quite surprised that he was not picked for the ODIs against England which finished recently. He would like to showcase his talent once again so that he remains on the radar of the national selectors. Washington Sundar is a genuine all-rounder and I feel he is a very good batsman who deserves a place in the top 6. He needs to have a very good IPL to cement his position in the first XI of the Indian team. Nitin Saini fell off the radar in the last few months and he needs a good IPL to get his place back in the Indian team. Kyle Jamieson has had a great start to his international career but he is yet to get an opportunity to play in the Indian subcontinent. It would be interesting to see how he goes here. With the World T20 to be played in India later this year, his performance would be closely watched by the New Zealand selectors too.

Threat: They have a top-heavy batting line up and all are aggressive players. Their middle order being weak could lead to Kohli and AB Devilliers not playing the aggressive brand of cricket which you expect them to play. Their spin bowling options are thin too and with the matches being held in India in the peak summer, it could be a problem for them. How they manage the workload of Nitin Saini and Md. Siraj would be interesting to see because India has a long summer ahead of them.

All in all, this team lacks balance. This has been a problem for RCB for many years now and unfortunately, they have not been able to plug that gap. Only due to the individual brilliance of some players this team might be able to reach the top 4 otherwise, I do not see them in the playoffs this season.

What do you think about the team composition? Will Virat Kohli be able to get back his century making form to prove me wrong?

Do write in with your comments!

Till then have a great day as I come back tomorrow with the SWOT analysis of Sunrisers Hyderabad.

Holi is a festival of colours. It’s a festival of joy and people spread joy by smearing each other with colours. When I talk of colours, the first thing that comes to my mind is the rainbow. People love the rainbow in the sky and it just portrays that human beings love colours and coming to think of it, I feel one always enjoys the company of people who lead a colourful life. 

Rainbow consists of 7 colours, namely, Violet, Indigo, Blue, Green, Yellow, Orange, and Red. But to lead a colourful life, one needs to have enough wealth so that you need not stress yourself out for the need for money. Human beings’ needs are ever-growing and my late father used to say that though money can’t buy you happiness it does get you food on the table and help you buy the medicines. So money can’t buy you everything but it does buy you something. Hence to have a very colourful life you need to create enough wealth so that you do not need to wake up every day and do the jobs which you probably do not like to do. Once you have that wealth, you can lead a life of self-actualization wherein you get up every day and do what your heart desires to do and lead a life of fulfillment.

Just like Rainbow has 7 colours, here are the 7 must-have habits that you can build to create long-term wealth for yourself and your family.

1. Live Frugally

Just as I said above, human needs can be very aspirational but the fact is that if you decide to live a life within your means and don’t overspend, you will be able to garner enough wealth in the long term to live life to the fullest. I learned this the hard way myself. When I was in college, my pocket money was Rs. 2000 per month. Out of this Rs. 1600 used to be spent on rent and food and I had Rs. 400 for myself to take care of my personal stuff. It was difficult but I learned to manage. When I got my first job, my salary was Rs. 4,500 per month and what I did first was to buy a bike for which I ended up paying an EMI of Rs. 1800 per month. How dumb of me that in place of saving, I ended up paying the additional money on a materialistic need. I had learned to live within Rs. 2000 per month and there was an opportunity to save money but I ended up adding to my expenses. It was not only the price of the bike that hurt me but the fuel that went into it also added up plus the maintenance after a few months. So, you see it’s important that you live within your means because that’s how you will be able to garner wealth in the long term.

Whenever you feel the need for buying anything, first ask yourself if you can live without it for 3 months. If the answer is yes then put that expense out of your head for 3 months. Two things happen in such a scenario:

• You save in these 3 months
• After 3 months you might realise you do not need it.

This is how you can curb your spending habits. We are living in the world of social media and the FOMO effect (Fear Of Missing Out) makes many of us buy stuff that we might not have done. Living frugally is a good habit and it’s important to keep doing that because the savings build up over time and your goal of financial freedom will come that much closer.

2. Invest First, Savings Next, Expense Last

Now that we spoke about living frugally, what do we do with the extra money that we have in hand? People keep it lying in their savings account. It’s still better than spending it but one needs to remember that your money doesn’t grow in banks. Well, it does but it doesn’t cover inflation in the long run. So, you should plan up your investment first. 

Start with the 80-20 rule if you have not yet started this habit. It means, 20% of your earnings will be for investments. Over a period of time, once you build up the habit, you can increase it. It doesn’t mean you should spend the other 80% though because 10% you should keep for emergencies. Try and lead your life with 70% of your earnings. As I wrote earlier, when we start, our needs are less, it’s just that over a period of time we keep adding our expenses. But if you have a frugal mindset, you won’t do that and if you have the goal of financial freedom and dream of living a colorful life in the future then you need to build up this habit as soon as possible.

Now, investments are of various kinds, Gold, Real Estate, Mutual Funds, Fixed Deposits, PPF, Stocks, etc. and I will come to it in detail later but for now make it a habit and mark it in your calendar that 20% of your earnings are to be earmarked for investments.

3. Insurance

If you are married or about to be married then the first thing you need to do is to buy a Life Insurance Policy. Do not fall for the various endowment schemes that all Life Insurance companies have, just buy a term life insurance policy. Now the question that will come to your mind is how much you should insure yourself for? Well, the thumb rule is, to buy a policy with a sum assured of 10 times your NET Annual income. So if you are earning, for example, Rs. 3 Lakhs per annum then purchase a policy of Rs. 30 Lakhs. As your income grows you need to increase the sum assured too by purchasing additional policies. 

Other than a life insurance policy, you need to have health insurance too. Today health expenses have gone pretty steep and you must cover yourself and your family well in this regard. Never disregard this because at a younger age people feels that insurances are an additional burden on the expenses but believe me if you purchase a policy early on in your career, then the premiums are pretty low and do not increase by leaps and bounds than if you purchase a policy for the first time in the middle age. 

Remember this golden rule, that insurances are not your investments but it does help you in getting tax rebates. Also never start a family without having yourself properly insured. Start a recurring deposit with your bank so that you do not feel the pinch of paying the premiums at the end of the year. 

4. Short Term and Long Term Goals

What are your goals? What is your ambition? What is your dream? These are some questions which you should ask yourself quite early in your career. Also equally important is to write down the goals and give a timeline to each of the goals. Once you give a timeline, you get a deadline for yourself and when you give a deadline you can then plan on how to reach there within the specified time.

Long-term goals can be achieved only by passing through short-term goals. So other than the long-term goals have a few short-term goals too because when you reach those short-term goals you will get extra motivation to reach your long-term goals. Also by reaching your short-term goals you will start having confidence that you are on the right track towards financial independence.

Now, what are short-term goals? It could be your younger sister’s marriage in 3 years? It could be your son’s admission to school? You define your goals and then plan how you can reach them. Always have a budget and while calculating keep inflation in mind. While budgeting, keep it on the higher side so that you do not get last-minute surprises. Once again everything starts with the habit of living frugally. If you do not curb your expenses, you will never be able to reach your goals. Expenses find their way of creeping up but if you are focused on attaining your goals then nothing can stop you from living frugally and within your means.

5. Assets  

Your net worth is (Asset – Liabilities). So if you focus on increasing your assets without increasing your liabilities, your net worth will soar and one day you will be able to reach your goal of financial freedom and colourful life. Assets cannot be built overnight. I remember as a kid I used to live in a rented house for close to 16 years. After that, my father bought a piece of land and then built a house on that land after a year, and finally, he had his first asset. It was a very happy day for him because years of hard work went behind having his own property – a property built fully on cash, nothing on debt. This is only possible if you have a frugal lifestyle. Each penny saved is each penny earned. Keep faith in this theory. Today loans are very easily available and most of us buy cars, properties on loans. But if you do a small calculation you will understand that you are paying much more than what the asset is worth in terms of interest. Remember inflation is only going northwards so your net worth is going to fall if you believe that increasing your assets by taking loans is a good strategy. It never was and it never is. Many people will tell you that buying a car by taking a loan is not a good idea but buying a house on loan is a great idea. It’s not because no one can predict the future and if something untoward happens then quickly this asset would become a liability.

So purchase and build up your assets by liquidating your investments but only when you are reaching your goals. This is exactly the reason why I advised above about writing down the goals. After writing down the goals, keep monitoring the progress.

What I do is, I have a master excel sheet (google sheet) which is shared with my wife where I keep a track of all my investments. The sheet has many tabs with each tab being one goal. Each goal then has a target figure (amount) along with a date by which I need to reach the goal. Then every year, I update that sheet and see how far we have progressed across each goal. Thereafter we plan the next year. It’s a simple habit which anyone can follow which in the long run will give you great benefits.

I have seen people who get a good raise and immediately end up spending the extra cash. This is a very bad habit. Remember the 80-20 rule I told you about above? Follow the same rule when you get a raise too and this way you will be able to reach your goals faster.

Assets take time to build and hence if you do not save and invest regularly you will always feel that you are not earning enough. I hear many people telling me that he or she earns very less so they can’t save or can’t invest but that’s an excuse because it’s your habit that is stopping you from investments and savings. First, build the habit of living frugally and then start investing right after getting your paycheck. Do not look at your investments more than once or twice a year and then one day you will save enough to build your assets.

Gold is another asset that takes time to build but with the Government of India coming up with the Sovereign Gold scheme once every 2-3 months, I would suggest investing in that. If you do not have a dream of acquiring physical gold this is a good way of building your assets.

6. Equities

The best investment with great long-term returns is an investment in legitimate businesses. If you understand the stock market and have a Demat account then purchase good stocks and hold them for the long term. Long-term means 10-15 years. Do not buy stocks based on tips. Only invest in businesses that you understand. I generally do not invest in more than 4-5 stocks at a time. I have made mistakes too when I did not understand the markets properly and ended up losing money. Never buy stocks based on the stock price. Buy stocks based on the value of the business. If you do not understand the stock market, then start reading some books. One of the best books that I can recommend in this field is The Intelligent Investor by Benjamin Graham. The fact of the matter is that you will have to learn the tricks of the trade if you wish to retire wealthy and retire early. When I talk of early retirement, I am talking of retirement from your daily grind. Once you are financially independent, you can then do stuff that you love to do or follow the passion that has long been hidden inside you. Remember one thing, stay away from negative people because when you enter the stock market you will get a lot of advice, and mostly the advice would be about the stock market being a gambler’s market. It’s wrong because it’s gambling only when you are trading daily but here we are buying businesses for the long term to build up our assets and increase our net worth.

Even after all this if you feel uncomfortable entering the stock market right away, start with investing in mutual funds. Have a basket of mutual funds (Large Cap, Mid Cap, Small Cap, Balanced and Diversified Equity). You can also invest in Index funds. Take the SIP route to start your investment journey. When I started investing in mutual funds (I am a late learner and a late groomer) we did not have the opportunity of directly investing in the mutual funds and had to take the route of investing through the mutual fund agents. Things have changed now and you can invest directly online. This will save you some extra money which in effect goes to the agents. Once again, most of these investments can be easily liquidated and hence resist looking at your profit/loss regularly. Once in 6 months is more than enough to see how things are shaping up. If you are new to this, start with Large Cap, Diversified Equity, and Index Funds. These are relatively less volatile than small-cap and mid-cap funds. One necessary caution, do not be overly aggressive. Build your portfolio slowly but stay put. 

7. Debt Free

I already touched on this point earlier that building assets via debt (loans) is never a good strategy. The profit that you build up with your investments can be completely wiped out due to the debts. Remember, Assets – Debts (Liabilities) = Your Net Worth. So keep debts at the bare minimum and keep increasing your investments to improve your net worth.

My father always told me that he might not be able to leave me with a lot of cash but he will ensure that he will never keep any debt on my head and that’s what should be the motto for everyone too. No one knows the future and building up an asset class by increasing debt might end up putting you and your family in despair in the future. To get a good night’s sleep get rid of your debts today. If you have already taken a lot of loans then first create a plan on how you are reducing them. Maybe as per the 80-20 rule, when you get a raise, in place of investing the new 20%, service your debt instead.

These are some tips if you follow diligently will lead you to financial freedom. Once you have your financial freedom, you will see this world in a different light and your life will be colourful too.

So what are you waiting for? Start planning today!

Wishing you all a very happy and colourful Holi. Last year we didn’t celebrate Holi due to Covid-19 and nothing has changed this year too as new cases keep rising once again. So stay safe and enjoy your day with your family.

Till we meet again, take care and God bless!

When the IPL journey started in 2008, I was not very sure if I would be lured into the T20 frenzy that much. But seeing that my hometown had its own team made me attracted to the tournament. I always loved watching matches in the stadium and IPL gave me that opportunity to see the matches from close quarters. With most of the matches starting late in the evening, I could go and watch the matches at the Eden Gardens without disturbing my work schedule. What also helped was the way KKR started the tournament in 2008 – the 158 runs blitzkrieg by Brendon McCullum. The sad part is though that KKR is yet to register another century thereafter. Though the team won IPL twice, it has always been about team play and less about individual flashes of brilliance especially when it came to batting.

KKR has been one team that always hogs the middle of the table. They have been finalists only twice and both the times they won the tournament. Over the last few years, the team has become way too dependent on a couple of players namely Sunil Naraine and Andre Russell. So when both of them started having average form, the team eventually struggled.

It was no different last year too with Andre Russell becoming extremely unfit. Most of the days the team was playing with 10 fit players on the field. To be fair even Sunil Naraine didn’t look 100% fit on the field. There were no like-for-like replacements last year and it hurt the team very much. So how is it looking this year? 

This is my best XI for the team:

Nitish Rana

Subhman Gill

Karun Nair

Eoin Morgan

Shakib Al Hasan

Dinesh Karthik

Andre Russell

Pat Cummins

Harbhajan Singh

Prasidh Krishna

Varun Chakravarthy 

SWOT Analysis of KKR:

Strength: Getting Shakib back in the squad is the best decision taken by KKR. It straight away improves the balance of the team. He has played for KKR when the team won the tournament twice and his all-round abilities will help the captain to rotate his bowlers properly. Too much pressure was on Andre Russell earlier and that dependency will reduce. Though they have inexperience at the top of the order, their longish batting lineup gives their top order to play to their potential. Another advantage this team possesses is like-for-like replacements across the board. The bench strength looks very good with both experienced and youngsters across all the three departments waiting for their turn.

Weakness: This is one team which always backs youngsters and this also means they have a lot of players with a lack of international experience. Their top order is pretty inexperienced and hence Morgan, Karthik, and Shakib have a lot on their plate. Kuldeep’s recent loss of form means Varun becomes their premier spinner who though talented doesn’t have international experience. Harbhajan Singh has not played any kind of cricket for close to two years and it could be a cause for concern too. If Andre Russell is not fit enough as per international standards then he can become a liability in the field but his six-hitting ability would hamper KKR’s chances in case they replace him with Ben Cutting. It would be interesting to see how they balance this factor in the tournament.

Opportunity: Big opportunity for Varun to show the Indian selectors that he belongs to this stage. India at the moment is struggling in the spinning department especially in white-ball cricket. Last year he made an impact in most of the matches and always bowled in tough situations and turned matches. He needs to do even better this year to get into the Indian team. Prasidh Krishna has been generally inconsistent while playing for KKR but he showed his potential when given the opportunity in the recent ODIs against England. He would love to put up a grand show this year to get into the T20 team of India. Nitish Rana is a very handy cricketer because he bowls too and India needs someone in the top 5 who can bowl a few overs. Last year it was hot and cold for Rana but if he needs to get into the Indian team then he has to perform consistently throughout the tournament.

Threats: There is not much threat this year for KKR because they have like-for-like replacements across the board but their main threat is the form and fitness of 4 players. They are, Shakib, Russell, Naraine, and Kuldeep. If these players end up playing true to their potential then it could turn out to be a very good tournament for KKR.

I am hopeful of a top 4 finish for this team in 2021. What do you think? Is this team capable of breaking the jinx of being elbowed out from the Top 4 consistently? Who would be their trump card?

Do write in with your comments. I will come back tomorrow with the SWOT analysis of Royal Challengers Bangalore.

Happy Holi everyone. Stay safe and God Bless!

Superstitions and human emotions go hand in hand. People tend to believe in such activities even though there might not be any logic behind such thinking. When IPL started in 2008, KKR’s brand colour was Black and Gold. At that time Shah Rukh Khan, the superstar owner of the team declared that black signifies Maa Kali (a Hindu deity) and though black signifies negativity, he believed his team being based out of Kolkata should have the brand colour as black since it signified Maa Kali. Unfortunately, the team did not do well in the first 3 seasons and he changed the brand colour to purple and with the change of colour came the change of fortunes because KKR went on to win the IPL twice in the next 4 years. It’s a different matter that the team is yet to reach the finals in the last 6 editions.

Many other IPL teams also changed their brand colours and some changed their names too. This time, Kings XI Punjab has decided to follow the same route and have rechristened themselves as Punjab Kings. Will this bring about a change in fortune for the team? Well, only time will prove that.

Last year the team didn’t start well losing a lot of matches on the trot, though their openers did brilliantly well. They did come back strongly towards the end after the induction of Chris Gayle in the playing XI but eventually finished 6th in the table. So how is it looking this time around?

Here is my best XI for the team this season:

KL Rahul

Mayank Agarwal

Dawid Malan

Nicholas Pooran

Mandeep Singh

Deepak Hooda

Chris Jordan

Jhye Richardson

Md. Shami

Arshdeep Singh

Ravi Bishnoi

SWOT Analysis:

Strength: Very strong top-order. Last season the partnership of Mayank Agarwal and KL Rahul invariably gave the team good starts and I expect the same to continue this season too. Dawid Malan in number 3 and Nicholas Pooran in number 4 just bolster their batting lineup. These top 4 batsmen can pulverise any attack on a given day. Expect some heavy-duty hitting from this team in the powerplay overs. Their pace bowling resources are equally strong. Jhye Richardson with Md. Shami makes an eye-catching two-some first up. Chris Jordan is a known performer in the T20s and Arshdeep Singh did pretty well in the last season. Their bench strength looks good too with a lot of experienced players as backups like Chris Gayle, Moises Henriques, Fabian Allen etc. Players with IPL experience like Murugan Ashwin and Sarfaraz Khan are also there.

Weakness: They have a weak middle order with a longish tail. With no all-rounders as such in the team, it can get very dicey for the team on days when one or two of their bowlers end up having a bad day. In the middle order, there is a lack of experience and hence there will be too much pressure on the top 4. This can lead to a change in mindset and when the positive intent goes missing, runs dry up in T20. This is exactly what happened last season too with KL Rahul curbing his strokeplay which finally led to run rate pressure at the end. How they balance this out would be interesting to see.

Opportunity: India is facing big troubles in white-ball cricket with quality leg-spin bowling. One spot is definitely up for grabs and Ravi Bishnoi should eye that with a superlative performance this year. He did well last season too and I hope we will have a better version of him this year. Jhye Richardson would also like to establish his position in the Australian team by putting up a grand performance this IPL. He is a very good bowler and him along with Md. Shami could become a lethal pair this season for Punjab Kings.

Threat: This team’s biggest threat is its excessive dependence on uncapped spinners. Ravi Bishnoi is the main spinner with Murugan Ashwin as the backup. The tournament will be played in India this time and quite likely some pitches will offer a lot of turn. Lack of spinning alternatives is a problem for this team. Another big threat is that going hard at the top of the order could lead to wickets and the day it happens they really are going to expose their tail. With no all-rounders around, it would be difficult on the days their top order fails to deliver.

On paper, their first XI doesn’t look bad but they have quite a lot of holes in between to fill. Their middle order looks weak and if they want to plug that by getting Gayle in then their bowling resources will be compromised. According to me, they will struggle to make the playoffs. 

What do you think? Do you agree to my playing XI? Who do you think would make the top 4 in IPL 2021?

Share your thoughts!

Take Care everyone. Tomorrow I will be back again with the SWOT analysis of my favourite team, The Kolkata Knight Riders!

One of the most successful teams in IPL history, Chennai Superkings had their worst season last year. With Suresh Raina and Harbhajan Singh pulling out of the tournament held in the UAE during the autumn of 2020, they had a pretty difficult time balancing their playing XI. In between, Dwayne Bravo also got injured which further complicated matters for them.

They had believed in having consistency in their squad but none of their senior players were getting younger and that showed in their performances. 

The core team of Chennai Superkings is still intact and this is what I think is their best playing XI this year. Remember, Shane Watson has retired from all forms of cricket but Suresh Raina is back in the team this year.

My best playing XI for CSK:

Ruturaj Gaikwad

Robin Uthappa

Suresh Raina

Faf Du Plessis

MS Dhoni

Dwayne Bravo

Ravindra Jadeja

Sam Curran

Shardul Thakur

Deepak Chahar

Imran Tahir

SWOT Analysis:

Strength: A long batting lineup is one of their strengths. They bat very deep and so you can expect a very positive start from their top order in all their matches. Another big strength of this team is the number of all-rounders that they possess. 7 players in this XI can bowl and that’s a luxury not all teams have in this competition. Having MS Dhoni as the captain is of course the biggest strength that the team has. Their bench strength is not bad and they have like-for-like replacements in most of the departments.

Weakness: Age is not on the right side of this team. Many players in this squad have long retired from International cricket. It was a problem for CSK in 2020 and it still remains a problem. T20 is a young man’s game and this is where this team comes short. This is an area they will have to look into next year when they will get an opportunity to reshuffle the entire squad. They will have quite a few slow movers in the field and it would be pretty difficult to hide slow-moving fielders in such a high-paced game of T20. This would put more pressure on their batting unit to score at least 15 runs more keeping this problem in mind.

Opportunity: Big opportunity for Ruturaj Gaikwad. He showed his class in the last 2 matches in 2020 and I hope to see him continue that in 2021 too. He has been on the Indian radar over the last couple of years and this IPL could be his breakout year. An opportunity for Suresh Raina too to show the world that he is not a spent force yet. I also look forward to seeing Ravindra Jadeja back in action who had been on the sidelines for the last couple of months due to the injury suffered during the Sydney test match.

Threats: Injuries can play a big role in this team mainly because many of the team members have not been playing competitive cricket for many months. Though they have like for like replacements on the bench, it would be difficult for new players to come in and perform straight away. IPL has been the grooming ground for many up-and-coming cricketers and that has spurred many individuals to give superlative performances for their respective teams. But a team which is filled with retired cricketers, I am not sure what motivation level they would have to put up a grand show.

Overall on paper, this team looks good especially in their all-round abilities and the bench strength that they possess but I feel they will struggle this year too because of the lack of match practise of many of their players. IPL is a very high-intensity tournament and it will be played in peak summer and hence players who have retired from international cricket might feel the heat as the tournament goes on.

They will hope that their younger players play exceedingly well on a consistent basis and that’s the only way I see them making a difference in 2021. Another thing I hope they do is to try the younger players early on rather than playing them at the fag end. If any experimentation is needed then do it in the first 3-4 matches. 

What do you think? Will CSK do better than last year? Will they reach the playoffs?

Please do share your thoughts. I am all ears.

Tomorrow I will be back with the SWOT analysis of another IPL team – a team who changed their name this year – from Kings XI Punjab to Punjab Kings.

Till then, have a great day ahead!

Indian Premier League is upon us and the cricketing extravaganza will be on our TV sets in another 2 weeks’ time. Last year, the tournament got postponed due to the ongoing pandemic and it was held in the UAE in October. It was a highly successful tournament because we had many close matches and the teams were pretty much evenly matched. Going into the last week of the group matches, all teams other than Chennai Superkings had the opportunity to finish in the top 4. The team that finished last eventually, Rajasthan Royals had the same number of points as CSK and Punjab Kings. In fact, third place to 8th place was a difference of 2 points with the separator being the net run rate. Though it’s pretty difficult to expect a similar encore this time around, as fans we will be looking forward to some thrillers no doubt.

As a buildup to the marquee tournament which is being held across 5 venues in India, I will be doing a SWOT analysis of each of the 8 teams over the next few days. I will also predict the best playing XI of each of the teams. And of course, as the tournament starts, I will be penning down my analysis just like the previous year. 

Today, we look at Rajasthan Royals.

Rajasthan Royals were led by Steve Smith in 2020. But this year they let go of him and made Sanju Samson the captain of the team. It’s quite a bold decision but I guess they believe that Sanju can bring continuity to the team in the long run. He is young and had a great IPL last season so it’s a just reward. How he balances the act of captaining the side without letting his performance slip would be interesting to see.  

Here is what I see as their best Playing XI:

Yashasvi Jaiswal

Jos Buttler

Sanju Samson

Ben Stokes

David Miller

Rayan Parag

Rahul Tewatia

Chris Morris

Shreyas Gopal

Jaidev Unadkat

Kartik Tyagi

SWOT analysis:

Strength: They have a very balanced team with a lot of batting and bowling options in their chosen playing XI. This kind of balance would mean that the top order can play with a lot of freedom and we all know how dangerous Jos Buttler, Sanju Samson, and Ben Stokes could be on their day. A very strong batting unit.

Weakness: Jofra Archer has pulled up injured and in all probability will miss the IPL. Without him, their bowling looks weak because he was one bowler who gave them a good start with the ball and came back at the death and picked up crucial wickets. The team doesn’t have big names when it comes to their bowling. Bowling is definitely their weakness. Another problem they have is with their bench. They have a good playing XI but if someone is injured or has a spate of bad performances they do not have like for like replacements across the board.

Opportunity: The biggest opportunity is with Sanju Samson. He missed the bus with the Indian team because of a lack of consistency. With the captainship role, he has got full backing from the management and I hope he uses this confidence to bring in some consistency to his game. When he is in full flow he is terrific to watch. He needs to do it consistently. The Indian middle-order is filled with good players so for him to break through, he needs to have a very special tournament, and in that lies his and his team’s biggest opportunity. Another opportunity is for the rising star, Yashasvi Jaiswal. He couldn’t do much last year in the limited opportunities he got. I hope he lives up to the talent this year. Kartik Tyagi who was a part of the squad in Australia as the net bowler would have learned a lot over the past few months. I am excited to see how he performs this year in the IPL.

Threats: The team looks heavily dependent on Buttler and Stokes. Samson had been inconsistent in the previous editions and so too has been Miller. This put too much pressure on the English stars. Stokes has been playing non-stop cricket over the last few months across all the 3 formats and if he has a sudden dip in form it could be a real problem for the team. No proper batting backups could come back to hit Rajasthan Royals hard.

So this is what I think about the team of Rajasthan Royals. What do you think? What is your best XI for the team?

Do share your thoughts as I come back tomorrow with the SWOT analysis of Chennai Superkings!

Take care everyone and God Bless!

It was 20th March 2003 when I made my final shift from our flat in Hulimavu (Bangalore) to my newly rented flat in Kagadaspura. The world cup semi-finals were on with India playing Kenya. It was evening time when I left Hulimavu. I didn’t have a TV at my new flat and hence couldn’t follow the rest of the match. Thinking of today, you can say, I lived in the ice age after all today one can follow the match on the move via Cricinfo/cricbuzz or other streaming platforms. But that was 2003 and the India of 2003 was far different from the India of 2021. Internet penetration was not high and it was generally restricted to cyber cafes and offices those days. Smartphones were also not available. So though I wanted to see the match I couldn’t.

The reason I moved to a new place on the day of the world cup semifinals was that I was to get married the next day. Mine was a simple marriage against my parent’s wishes and took place in a temple. So on 21st March 2003, I tied the knot with Sushma and as I write this, we complete 18 years together. Quite a journey through thick and thin, which started in Bangalore and currently residing in Howrah!

A few years later in late 2006, I moved from Bangalore to Howrah (my ancestor’s place is in Howrah) because I got a job in Kolkata. One day while waiting for my bus near Webel More (sector V, Kolkata), I met my junior from college, Jahangir who was working at a nearby office in Sector V. We exchanged pleasantries, and then he put a call across to Asif, my roommate in Bangalore. Though I had been in touch with Asif when he was in Bangalore, I lost touch after 2003 when he shifted to Kolkata. Thanks to Jahangir, I got in touch with Asif again. A couple of weeks later, I visited his house and I met his wife, Sumbul for the first time. There I came to know that they got married in 2004 and hold your breath they got married exactly one year after me that is 21st March 2004. 

Dates are lovely isn’t it – they always find a connection. So as I celebrate my 18th Marriage anniversary today with Sushma, Asif and Sumbul are celebrating their 17th. Happy Anniversary to them too.

A few years later, Me, Asif, and Mukesh opened a software firm, AMS Technologies. Just as it happens at startups we struggled but thankfully we survived. Around 2012 with business growing, we decided to convert our firm into a Private Limited Company. When we applied for the same, it was brought to our notice that we can’t get the name AMS Technologies because it was already taken by some company in Maharastra. It was big trouble for us because it meant, we now needed a new name and that meant a lot of logistical issues. But we had no choice and finally got ourselves registered as Brainium Information Technologies Pvt. Ltd. 

Now, why am I telling this here which looks like a personal anniversary blogpost? Well, guess the date of registration of Brainium Information Technologies Pvt. Ltd? It was 21st March 2013.

How dates collide isn’t it?

3 different occasions in 3 different years all tightly knit on a common date – the 21st of March. 

Grand Coincidence!

So a very happy anniversary to all Brainites across India! May we all shine and make a difference in all our lives and our clients’ lives. Let’s continue our digital transformation journey. Let’s progress towards making this country truly digital.

Take care everyone and God bless!

India always tends to play badly at the start of the series. This is something I observed over the years as a fan. This was particularly true when India went to tour the SENA nations (South Africa, England, New Zealand, and Australia). Multiple times India lost series 1-0 in test matches in these countries and when you check the record books, you will find that the first test match was lost. So it’s clear that India improves their performance dramatically over the series but the loss in the first match generally becomes the difference!

Right after IPL 2020, the Indian team travelled to Australia. The tour started with a 3 match ODI series. As was the norm Australia out batted India in the first match and it was repeated in the second match too. Within a span of 2 days the first series of the tour was lost. But as is the norm with India, they came back strongly winning the inconsequential third ODI, and took the momentum forward by winning the next two T20 matches to win the T20 series.

The Test series followed and India had one of the worst days in their cricketing history when they were bowled out for 36 runs to hand themselves an unforgettable loss of face. The critics were out with many ex-cricketers predicting a 4-0 loss for India. But as has been chronicled many times over, India changed the course of the series by winning 2 of the last 3 matches and drawing another. The critics were left searching for cover as India breached the Gabba for the first time in 32 years to win the series 2-1.

A come-from-behind series victory when everyone wrote them off showed the mental strength of this cricket team and a lot of credit must go to the coaching staff led by Ravi Shastri.

England was in India for a series of tests, T20s, and ODI matches. India was in a high after beating Australia in Australia. And once again a series started with England demolishing India by a big margin! The critics were out once again with Virat Kohli and Ajinkya Rahane facing a lot of wrath on social media for their failures. But as has been the norm in recent times, once again India came back strongly and won the next 3 matches to win the series 3-1.

A lot of talks went behind the back about the pitch conditions but as could be judged from the matches, England won tosses, batted first but still lost. The fact was that they struggled against the Indian spinners and the English spinners weren’t able to sustain continuous pressure on the Indian batsmen. The Indian tail which generally crumbled under pressure came up with superlative performances whenever things looked rosy for the opposition. 

The T20 series followed next. England the current 50 over world champions and the top-ranked side in T20 cricket held all the aces. Their first XI was available and with the T20 World Cup to be staged later in India, it was perfect timing to let the world know why they are the favourites to win. India on the other hand was handicapped with many in their bowling unit not available. Bumrah was not available due to his marriage, while Shami and Jadeja both were yet to be fit due to injuries. Jadeja in particular helps India get a perfect balance due to his all-round abilities and his unavailability made a huge difference to the Indian side. Bhubaneswar Kumar was coming back after a few months due to his injury lay off. So for India, this tournament was more of seeing how the youngsters perform so that they could get their playing XI set up for the World T20. 

I was unable to watch the first match due to an office get-together but followed it on Cricinfo. Some of my colleagues had their HOTSTAR streaming live but I quickly moved away from that because India was down 3 wickets before the power play overs were completed. To be very frank other than the audacious reverse flick sixer by Pant against Jofra archer there was not much to write home about. Before the start of the match, there were talks of Surya Kumar Yadav replacing Shreyas Iyer but it was Iyer who kept the innings together with his half-century. But India’s score of 124 runs would have never been enough and England won quite easy to take the lead in the 5 match series.

Once again a series started with India losing the first match pretty horribly but there was no reason to believe that India couldn’t come back strongly. The dew in the latter half of the first match made the toss very vital. Batting seemed easier in the second half. Of course, India was without some of their main bowlers and that affected the team performance too.

India rang in the changes in the second match. They handed debut caps to Ishan Kishan and Surya Kumar Yadav – two top performers in IPL for Mumbai Indians. India went in with a bowler short and it seemed a very risky strategy. Thankfully Virat won the toss and India had the opportunity to chase. The strategy of playing with 5 bowlers was too much of a risk when you are defending a total but with India batting second it looked relatively better. But then England had to be kept under 175 runs for team India to chase down. Indian bowlers rose to the occasion and especially in the middle overs they strangled the opposition with smart slower balls and the final momentum which is required in any T20 match went missing for England due to the loss of important wickets in the middle overs. The spinners struggled but the pacers bowled quite well to keep England within 165 runs. 

India opened with Rahul and Kishan and though Rahul failed, Kishan didn’t show any nerves that are generally seen with a debutant. The IPL has been a great addition to the Indian cricket calendar and these new players having played against the top players in IPL had no qualms facing the English bowlers. Ishan Kishan showed great skills especially the pull shots and the front foot off drives. A debut half-century followed. Virat Kohli also got into the groove scoring a fluent half-century to take India home. It was great to see, Virat calling Kishan on stage to share his man of the match moment. After all, it was Kishan who wrestled the momentum for India in this match.

The third match followed a couple of days later. India lost the toss and the 5 bowler strategy had to backfire with India defending. Though Virat scored another fluent half-century, 156 runs was never enough to defend. With the dew making the spinners redundant and with no backup of bowlers, England won in a canter by 8 wickets. Butler made the Indian bowlers feel like club cricketers with his audacious hitting all around the wicket. The momentum was back with England and they looked all set to take the series. 

Virat Kohli never had a good time at tosses and with the amount of dew we had in the matches, it was quite clear that the team batting second had a distinct advantage. There is a saying that you can do well only on things you can control and to be fair, the toss was never in control of anyone. It’s pure luck. So India had to do things in the cricketing field better, letting tosses not control their destiny.

The fourth match was a do-or-die situation for India. India lost the toss once again and just like in previous matches India had to bat first. They persisted with their 5 bowler theory which was a very risky strategy. First thing first though – India needed to bat well. Taking dew into consideration the minimum that India needed to score was 180. Anything below that was advantageous for England. One of the reasons that India went with such a big batting lineup was for the team to play fearless cricket. If you play to save wickets it won’t help the cause so the ideal strategy was to go after the bowling from the word go. That’s how India started this time around with Rohit hitting a sixer off Adil Rashid in the very first ball. Though he perished the next over, Surya Kumar Yadav pulled the first ball nonchalantly for a six. He continued in the same zest and only a controversial catch got him out. He of course crossed the half-century mark before that. The England pace bowlers especially, Mark Wood and Jofra Archer bowled very well but the other bowlers were taken for plenty with Pant and Iyer giving a big impetus to the Indian score at the fag end. India finished at 185 runs which was just above par in Ahmedabad.

India needed to bowl well because dew made the spinners a lottery. India had two of them. Though India started well picking up Butler and Malan quickly, the England middle-order batsmen especially Ben Stokes brought them back into the game. The Indian spinners were taken for plenty but Shardul Thakur in the space of two balls picked up both Stokes and Morgan to bring India back into the game. Shardul Thakur always has this happy knack of picking up wickets and that day his over changes the complexion of the match. He tends to go for a lot of runs but his smart usage of slower ball variations gets his wickets and it was no different that day too. India was able to win defending a total and that too with only 5 bowlers at their disposal. Hardik Pandya’s bowling effort of 2/16 in 4 overs was very handy for the Indian team.

With the series hanging in the balance it was all to play for in Ahmedabad yesterday. India finally decided to take the extra bowler in the decider sacrificing KL Rahul who till then had been having a very ordinary series with the bat. How things change over a period of a couple of months. From being India’s first-choice opener and wicket-keeper he finds himself out of the team. Rishabh Pant’s spectacular rise in the last few months has been the chief reason for the same.

India once again lost the toss and they decided to make a smart change up in the order with Virat opening with Rohit Sharma. You will hardly find a series in the last few years where Rohit has had a quiet series. He had to play a defining knock and he chose the series decider to do that. Each of the bowlers was given the same treatment as Virat Kohli looked on from the other end. Rohit is in all probability world’s best executioner of the pull shot and there were plenty on display yesterday. When Rohit is on song it’s always difficult to keep the scoreboard stagnant and though he got out in the 9th over there was no let-up in the intensity from the Indian side. In the earlier match, Surya Kumar Yadav hit the first ball for six, here he hit the second ball for a six. Virat was also in full flow and when a superlative effort from Jordan brought the end of Surya Kumar Yadav, it was Hardik Pandya of hold who took the English bowlers to the cleaners. If 180 was the par score then this match was as good as over because India ended up scoring 224 runs.

Dawid Malan is the world’s top T20 batsman but his performance in the last 4 matches was nowhere near to the potential he possessed. But like Rohit, he took the final match to show his class. He along with Buttler made the Indian bowling attack pedestrian. The addition of an extra bowler helped though because without Natarajan it would have been a very sorry day for Washington Sundar. After all, Buttler was in some mood yesterday.

T20 is a batsman’s game and in a high-scoring encounter if there is a bowler who keeps the runs in check makes the difference between both the teams. Bhuvi was the man for India yesterday. His third over of the match wherein he sent back Jos Buttler changed the complexion of the match. Shardul Thakur followed Bhuvi by picking up Malan in the next over. The asking rate kept climbing up and though the England lower order hit some lusty blows at the end the match was as good as over. India won by a pretty comfortable margin of 36 runs. In a match where over 400 runs were scored, Bhuvi returned figures of 2/16 in his 4 overs – the real differentiator between the two teams.

A series that started with India scoring 124 runs ended with them scoring 224 runs and the margin of victory 36 runs brought back the memories of Adelaide where the Indian team was bowled out for 36. Sometimes ” 36 ” is not that bad a number after all.

Another series in which India started on the wrong foot ended with them lifting the series. Coming from the back and winning these important matches has now become a habit for this team. But it all starts in the mind. When the mind is clear and the spirit is high you can do unthinkable things. It’s the positive mentality- it’s the winning mentality that spurs few individuals to go above their means to establish wonderful things and this Indian team has shown the world just that. What if the best XI is not available- it doesn’t matter because each individual believes in his ability to back their strengths and make a difference to the team.

This is how winning teams are built. It’s a team game and each individual contributes towards the team goal. Kudos to this spirit and I hope India continues to grow in strength because two very important occasions are coming up this year – the WTC finals in June and the WT20 in October. I hope India wins both. The country is waiting.

As an organisation you will grow only if you are ready to build a team properly. This is a time taking activity because you can’t build a strong and excellent team overnight. It can take up to 3 years to develop such a team. And once you reach that goal, you need to ensure that it continues to grow in the same manner.

There will be a lot of short-term pains which you need to overcome in the process but what you need to see is that are you progressing in the right direction. As the CEO of the company, you need to focus on the results and you should compare how things are progressing on a quarter-to-quarter basis.

To ensure that your vision is aligned with your employees it’s important to build a good team. But if you are for example a company with 200 employees then your vision might not get properly transmuted right down the ladder. Hence you must build teams within your organisation.

Now how do we go about building our teams?

Here are a few points which I suggest on this topic of Team Building.

1. Team of 10

I have seen multiple times that organisations create a Team Leader or a Manager and put 20-25 or more people under one person. This is a catastrophe. A person can’t manage more than 10 people at a time. And to be honest even 10 could be exasperating at times if you do not have a proper culture ingrained in your system. And this 10 member team includes the manager too because finally, the manager works for the team, not the other way round. So for starters have a manager against 9 team members. Anything more than 9 and your manager will be completely stressed and you will find the overall team performance to fall too. So get the basics right, do not have more than 9 members under one manager.

Remember, managing a team is very stressful because you not only have to look at the client deadlines or sales/revenue targets but also team dynamics which includes great camaraderie among teammates and a culture of doing and getting better each day. All these activities need time and as a manager, you need to spend time with your individual teammates too because when your team members are happy, their output will be good.

2. Gender Equality

I know it’s difficult to have a 50-50 situation but you gotta try and get it as close as possible. As said above you need to have no more than 10 members in a team inclusive of the manager. Now see to it if you can have 4-5 ladies in a particular team. If the manager is a lady then try to get 3 team members who are females. This is very vital. Teams perform better which has an equal distribution of males and females. Having one or 2 female members in a 10 member team is not good because then biases come in and we in India are yet to get over certain biases. But to make it a great performing team you should look at this diversification because there are many things like compassion, empathy, patience which are much stronger in ladies than in gents. So get this right and you will see better results.

3. 20% Juniors in each team

So now that you have a 10 member team (9 members and 1 manager), see to it that out of this group of 10 people, 2 are juniors. Now, these 2 members can be freshers straight out of college or maybe having 1 year of experience in the industry. Hiring juniors is very important for any organisation to grow in the long term. Short-term thinkers do the mistake of not hiring freshers but that’s a very wrong strategy. When you hire freshers or employees with 1 year of experience it helps the team to be more energetic. Young people have more energy and their perspective on life is a lot different than someone who has been in the industry for 7-8 years or more. When you have energy and enthusiasm, you attract positivity and when you attract positivity, positive results follow. These youngsters though may take time as far as learning new skills is concerned but if the attitude is right, he or she will learn them pretty fast.

Of course, the hiring strategy should be right. Too much time is spent in understanding how good these people are in core skills and how much they score in aptitude tests but ideally do psychometric tests and understand how good are they in their attitude. Are they energetic? Are they willing to learn new things? What is their ambition? Have there been any goals which this candidate had as a teenager and how far has he or she gone to achieve that? How is their communication skill? Do they smile and throw positive vibes during the interview?

These are the things that you need to look at while hiring freshers and when you get the right candidate with the right attitude hire them and induct them into your team. Remember skills can be taught, attitude can’t. Having a good diversification of junior team members will change your team’s dynamics, they will get more energetic because energy will transmute from these youngsters to the senior people and together they will make a lovely team and together they will work towards the team goal.

4. Leadership from anywhere

This is where your role as a CEO becomes very vital. You need to build a culture of transparency. Just having an open-door policy might not help if you do not listen to what’s being said and if you do not take action based on feedback received. I have seen in my experience that many junior employees have great leadership skills right from the initial days. These are the future stars of your team and you should have a healthy work culture so that anyone, be it of which designation can come forward and give their idea for the betterment of the company.

These people should be lauded because then they will get the required confidence to come forward more often with better ideas which would, in turn, help the team.

Just because I am not a designated leader so I will keep quiet – this attitude destroys the company’s culture because it means that the person’s heart is not in the job. If I am working in a company I should always care about the company and I should be openly suggesting what is good for the team. The designation should not stop me from giving my point of view.

When you implement such a culture in your organisation then any person within a particular team won’t be bogged down from taking any decision which he or she thinks is for the betterment of the company or the client. Finally, the heart should be in the right place and the team members should think only about client satisfaction which in turn would improve the company’s brand equity. Leadership should never be based on the designation. Spread this noise across the company that anyone is a leader as long as he or she takes care of the company’s goals. A team member should not be selfish looking only at his or her personal goals – when that happens the team will fail and subsequently the company will fail.

5. Captain and Vice-captain

In my first point, I discussed having one manager for every 10 member team. I also discussed why more than 10 would disturb the equilibrium. Here I am adding another point and that is having an Assistant Manager within the team. This person will not only be the supervisor on days the manager is off but will also help the junior team members. As you remember we discussed having at least 2 junior members in each team and these junior members would need good handholding and training in the initial days. The manager is already busy with a lot of other activities with the rest of the team so here the Assistant Manager works as a guide to these new team members. The Assistant Manager whom I have christened as the vice-captain not only works as part of the team just like a senior member of the team but this additional responsibility of helping the juniors works as an internship for his or her future roles when he or she get promoted to being a full-fledged manager. So you can say it will work as testing waters for future managers.

6. Knowledge & Mistakes

As a team one should build a culture of sharing knowledge. This is very vital for a company to grow. When a team member gains some new knowledge that helps in solving a critical problem, it’s very important that the knowledge is shared so that in the future if someone else faces a similar problem he or she will know what has to be done. This also makes the team member happy because he or she gets the required accolades in front of colleagues which works as a boost for them and they will be further motivated to do better.

Mistakes happen. We are humans and mistakes can happen but one should build a culture of learning from mistakes. When you do not show anger when a mistake happens but in that place you sit with that person and make her understand the mistake and try to understand why the mistake was triggered, then your team member will feel far better and will try and see to it that such future mistakes don’t happen. Secondly, owning up to mistakes starts right from the top. If you do a mistake, it’s best that as a manager you own it up in front of your team. This will ensure that your team members will give more respect to you and they will be able to overcome their fear of hiding or being defensive when doing any mistakes. Accepting mistakes is very tough to do but when you do that, you will realise that it’s a great relief pill. Never be defensive when you are pointed to a mistake. Never give excuses. Own up because then only you will learn and get better.

7. Guidelines

Each company has its own processes based on which the company runs. But what’s very vital is to let your team members know that any process is a guideline and team members can customise based on the situation. We are humans, not horses so adapt to situations and take decisions based on what is best for the organisation. Do not treat processes like “Laxman Rekha” that can’t be breached – rather make it like ‘Traffic Yellow Lines” which can be breached once in a while if the situation demands so but only if it makes a difference to the client satisfaction. Client satisfaction improves brand equity so this is something all team members should be made aware of.

Too many times I have seen that people follow processes without thinking that it might harm a client’s goal. Sit back and think if that’s the case and make changes based on the situation. As said earlier this depends a lot on company transparency. If you allow a culture where if a process is breached she will get negative points then that person will not think about the client and will rather think about the process. In the meanwhile, because of this, the client will suffer and your company’s brand image will suffer. So be very careful when you roll out any process because what you say when you roll out the process is how your process will be perceived by the team members. Keep an open frame of mind and always inform the teams that the processes are being rolled out to help us work in a more cohesive manner which in turn would help our clients to be served better. Customer satisfaction is what we are all aiming for so when you clear the air that it’s an important goal to achieve the team members will understand and when you walk the talk people will realise that they can follow the guidelines without being too frightened about it.

8. Targets

We are in business and business means selling something for a profit. When there is no profit then there is no business because after a while the business will close down because there won’t be any money to run the show. Hence, it’s very important to have short-term and long-term targets. Quite clearly in my experience, I have found that other than the managers most do not feel comfortable working on targets. This amazes me a bit because finally each one of us has some targets (goals) in our lives and we all are walking towards them. So when you are working in a business why will you shy away from it?

I understand it’s because of communication. Company management does not transparently share all the company data with their employees. This culture of hiding things then gets seeped into the team and after a few years, small matters also start to get hidden. I think management should be open and they should openly discuss their financials with the team members. This procedure helps the team members feel good because then they feel cared for. Just like money management should be taught at home from a young age, similarly, a company’s finances should be discussed openly with your teammates. This makes the employees feel more important and then you do not need to give them the target for the next quarter or the next year – you will find your team members coming back to you with the numbers themselves.

Of course, production people might not give you the sales targets but they can always inform you that they will finish this project within this time and get it delivered and that’s more than enough because when the product gets delivered, the customer is happy and the company gets paid. This is the positive effect of being transparent is. Rather than hiding stuff, open up, and then you do not need to give the targets, the team members themselves will create their own targets which when added together will help the company reach its goals.

9. Celebrate wins

Generally, all companies celebrate once or twice a year on some grand occasions. But, here I want the teams to celebrate small wins. Supposedly a team has completed a project much ahead of the deadline, allow the manager to have a budget every quarter which he or she can use to celebrate the occasion. Here the manager’s reporting head should also join the celebrations. We are all humans and we are social animals. When we see the boss’s boss celebrating with you, you feel elated and you get super motivated the next day. When you celebrate do not talk about business, talk more about family, friendships, and joyfulness. That’s what will motivate the team further. People forget to celebrate small wins thinking that too many celebrations are bad for health. Actually, it’s not. When you celebrate, you enjoy, you laugh, you improve camaraderie and that helps in attaining your future goals. Your employees’ should believe that you care, your team members should believe that their manager cares and when you celebrate small wins and do that consistently, they know that you are loved and respected in this place and their loyalty improves. When they treat the company as their own company, you need not push for results because the team members will push each other to get the results.

Finally, the company will win.

So these are my points which I think helps in building a great team. Do you think I have missed any? Do you think it’s something very radical – any of the points? Do you think it’s already happening in every company?

Do share your thoughts and views because when all companies start following this, the world will be a better place to work at. Let’s remove toxic culture from the companies. Let everyone thrive. Let all companies thrive. Let India thrive and Let the world thrive.

Till we meet again, Au Revoir!

England, the reigning world champions in 50 overs cricket has set her eyes strongly on winning the T20 world cup too. That’s their clear-cut priority and they make no fuss about it.

In the recently concluded Test series, one could see the rotation policy of the England cricket team with each match having 3-4 changes. Come the T20 series and you will see there won’t be any chopping and changing in their lineup.

This England team over the last 3-4 years under Eoin Morgan has built an awe-inspiring white-ball cricket team. Every team makes a sedate start to a match once in a while but not the English team because they believe in slam-bang cricket from the word go. The advantage of having a lot of all-rounders has helped their cause a lot in this regard.

England has brought their best side for the T20 series which starts on 12th March while India has some injuries amongst their ranks. Bumrah has been rested and Shami and Jadeja are yet to be 100% fit but this doesn’t make India a weak team because India has a huge backup of fringe players who are yearning to get their opportunities.

Quite a few new-comers have been selected in this series namely, Surya Kumar Yadav, Ishan Kishan, Varun Chakravarthy, and Rahul Tewatia. I am not sure how many of them would get a chance in the playing XI with Rishabh Pant coming back and is sure to make the playing XI.

This is a good time, I thought to analyse what would be India’s best playing XI for the first T20 international to be played at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad on Friday.

The Openers

Rohit Sharma & KL Rahul

This is India’s best opening pair for T20 cricket. Let’s not make any fuss about this because these 2 players can tear away any bowling attack on their day. The advantage of having Rahul opening the innings would help India’s cause of getting a quick start. Rahul gets off the block very quickly and could be a great foil to Rohit Sharma who takes a bit of time to get going.

Virat Kohli

The captain and India’s permanent number three for white-ball cricket comes in next. Virat has been a bit out of form by his high standards having not scoring any international century in the last 16 months but I am sure he will come back strong because I believe it’s just a lull before the storm. He is yet to score an international T20 hundred and who knows he might break that jinx in this series.

Shreyas Iyer

Shreyas Iyer keeps his spot at number 4 because India needs to give a consistent run in that position. This number 4 spot was the reason for a lot of debates before and after the cricket world cup of 2019 and hence it makes sense to have some regularity in this spot. Iyer in the last couple of years has shown consistency in that spot and though his shot selection against the rising deliveries is still questionable but with the world cup being held in India, I don’t think it would be of any problem for him. He is a terrific player of spin bowling and one could be very sure that 8-10 overs of spin every team will throw at the opposition and Iyer could become a very important player by holding on to the number 4 spot.

Rishabh Pant

By sheer performance, Rishabh Pant comes back to the side. His wicket-keeping showed tremendous improvement over the last 4 test matches and his batting just went up a notch in the last couple of months. He brings in power in the middle order who could destroy any attack on his given day. I think he would be the X-Factor in the T20 world cup.

Hardik Pandya

Though I am not sure if he is bowling ready yet but just for his power-hitting skills he makes it to the playing XI. In the last couple of matches in Australia where India won the T20 series, he showed his class and I am very sure he will give a lot of joy to India in the days to come. He is one player who can transform a match in one or two overs with his lusty blows. If he is fit to bowl then it’s even better. A couple of overs from him would definitely help Virat Kohli especially if one of the main bowlers go for a few runs.

Axar Patel

With Ravindra Jadeja not playing due to injury, Axar Patel gets a long run in his place. After his heroics in the recently concluded test series, you can’t keep him out of the playing XI, can you? This of course means that Washington Sundar missing out but then that’s the problem India has right now with too many good players around. He is no mug with the bat too though not in the league of Ravindra Jadeja who is once in a generation cricketer.

Shardul Thakur

As a bowler, he can blow hot and cold due to his inconsistency in line and length but he has the happy knack of picking wickets. In T20 cricket one thing is for sure that the best way to keep the opposition down is by picking up regular wickets and Thakur becomes very effective in that. His batting skills are good too as he showed in the Brisbane Test match and his inclusion in the playing XI bolsters India’s batting strength. With a longish batting line up the top order could play with more freedom which is very much required in today’s T20 brand of cricket.

Bhuvaneswar Kumar

Bhuvi makes his comeback after a long layoff due to injury. He gets into the XI without any trouble because he is one bowler who can swing the ball both ways at the start and has the ability to bowl yorkers and slower deliveries at the death. With Bumrah not available for the series his performance would be vital for India to make a mark. He is a bowling all-rounder too so provide additional cushion to the Indian batting lineup.

Deepak Chahar

Natarajan who was a definite starter has got injured and is likely to miss the whole series. This opens up a spot for Deepak Chahar. Chahar made the most of his opportunity when he got his chance during Bhuvi’s injury but he has been lacking consistency nowadays. There is a possibility that he couldn’t adjust to the Australian conditions well after a long IPL but he needs to get his act together in this series because when Bumrah and Shami get back to the team he will find himself outside. He is in a similar mold to Bhuvaneswar Kumar so ideally, he should bowl out within the first 8-10 overs. His death bowling is not so good and this could hurt India. There is a chance of India playing Washington Sundar in place of him which of course depends a lot on the pitch and the conditions.

Yuzvendra Chahal

Wrist Spinners make a big difference to any team in white-ball cricket and more so in T20. Chahal has been on his own league throughout the season. Though Kuldeep has lost his mojo, Chahal has been able to keep his place intact due to his knack for picking up wickets. As a leg spinner, he is an attacking option for Kohli and is expected to pick up wickets in the middle overs so that the English power hitters do not run away with the match.

So this according to me is the best playing XI for India come 12th March.

What do you think? Any alternatives or contrarian views?

Do write in. Happy to engage with fellow 12th Man!

Take care guys! God bless!

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