Always look to evolve and get better – Southee’s Mantra of T20 Success

From carrying the drinks in previous T20 World Cup to being the spearhead of New Zealand’s bowling attack, Tim Southee sure has come a long way. He shared some his preparation tips and mindset that made the difference.

Southee emphasizes the willingness to learn

“You’re always looking to evolve and get better, finding ways to improve your game – especially when you’ve been playing for a while,” Southee tells in an interview. “Sides start to work you out after a period of time so you have to keep adapting, keep learning, and keep enjoying it: the willingness to learn and the hunger to keep getting better has always been there for me.”

“We look to swing the new ball,” he explains. “There’s been a little bit there at times but when you play in this part of the world, you go in with the mindset that there’s not going to be a lot so that if it is moving around a bit, it becomes easier. It’s a fine line in the powerplay between getting too full and looking for some swing but at all three venues, hard lengths have been the toughest to hit.

“At the death, it’s changed. You have to keep learning: when I first started, the low full toss was considered a half-decent delivery at the end. Now, guys can hit 360 degrees and can hit so well that your margin for error in terms of your yorker is so small. That presents opportunities to come up with new things: I’ve been working on a knuckleball, offcutter and legcutter. To have those options is a really good thing going into that death phase.”

We take info from analyst and come up with our own plans as well – Southee

“Our mindset is to be aggressive,” Southee says. “If you can keep taking regular wickets, it’s the fastest way to slow a side down and we know that with a batting line-up like England’s, you need to pick up wickets throughout.”

“For Santner to only bowl one over in a semi-final, going into it, you probably wouldn’t think that would be the case,” Southee says, “but having Moeen Ali there, who matches up pretty well to balls spinning into him? It just didn’t seem like the right option.

“The analyst sits down with the bowling and batting coaches who then come up with plans and present them to the group. You take what you can from that meeting and come up with your own plans as well, and Kane is across them all. There’s a lot of information thrown around before the game but a lot of it comes down to Kane and his gut feels out there as well.”

Southee talks about their Final against Australia this Sunday

“There’s a lot of personnel changes since then – a different format, a different part of the world, and a long time ago,” he says. “In any sport, growing up – rugby, cricket, you name it – there’s always that rivalry between New Zealand and Australia. It’s always a great occasion, especially in a final. We’ve been playing some pretty good cricket. Hopefully we can turn out one more performance.”

Avishkar Govardhane