It may be his first outing in the Indian Premier League, but the former Zimbabwe captain Heath Streak appears to be quite at home as he engages in discussions with his wards in the Gujarat Lions squad. Post retirement, the former fast bowler has made his mark as a coach; in recent times he has lifted Bangladesh cricket to new heights and is excited about being part of the multi-international squad in the Vivo IPL 2016. Appointed bowling coach of the newly introduced Gujarat Lions team, Streak has been in the thick of the action alongside coach Brad Hodge and others as the team prepares to compete in the ninth edition of the tournament. Ahead of the Suresh Raina-led team’s opening game against Kings XI Punjab in Mohali, Streak spoke to iplt20.com about his new assignment and shared his approach to coaching. Excerpts from the interview: What is your view of the IPL having watched it from the outside for eight seasons? It’s very exciting! It is good to see the world’s best playing together with the icons of India. There are a lot of players I have played against, like Sachin (Tendulkar), Viru (Virender Sehwag) and Rahul (Dravid). There are legends who are associated with the IPL and that’s one reason why we (in Zimbabwe) have followed the tournament. There is a big following in Zimbabwe. IPL is the only competition outside of international cricket that people in Southern Africa follow and have a team that they support and follow from the beginning to the end. How did coaching an IPL team come about for you? With the new teams being announced, I knew that there could be an opportunity for some support staff. Having been in Bangladesh (as coach) I put my name in the hat. I applied to the franchise saying that I have been coaching in Bangladesh and I would like to think that I have done reasonably well there and understand the conditions. And that being in the international circuit I also know a lot of the international players. I put my name forward and also had a chat with Suresh (Raina) about it. Now I am here and it’s very exciting. What drew you to coaching an IPL franchise? Everyone who coaches at the league level, and even a number of coaches who have coached at the international level, have been part of the support system of IPL teams. Among other things it’s a really good challenge because you are playing with a big mix of people who are not just from one country. You get to know a lot more by being involved with a side which has players from other countries along with the Indian players. I am really looking forward to it. I know that as much as I can help the players to learn and develop, I can also learn a lot as a coach and evolve and hopefully get better and be able to improve in my own rounds as a coach. What are the factors that helped boost Bangladesh to new heights? I encourage players to play with freedom and enjoyment. While working hard, especially in training, I like to try and push them hard to train at a much higher level of intensity, put themselves under pressure, and try and simulate the pressure they will face in a match. It’s not always easy to do and replicate in a practice environment. But you really put yourself under pressure if you aim to bowl at match speeds, challenge yourself and tell the batsmen to challenge you, set fields to make sure you don’t get them easy. That’s sort of what I encourage the guys to do so when they step into the international scenario and there is a lot more pressure, then it is not an unfamiliar territory and they can go out there and express themselves. I just want them to give a hundred percent, to be prepared well. I know they are going to have a bad day, that they are going to bowl bad balls. But I want them to focus more on the good things that they do and encourage that. As long as they continue to work hard, and develop and do what they are good at, I encourage them. I give them the freedom to go and express themselves and stick to their strengths. What are the kind of drills that you have been conducting with this team? I suppose it’s a bit of mix. Because a lot of them are international players they are very certain they know what they need to do to go and perform; so I am there just to support them and also maybe open their mind to options that they can look at. It is not just their technical options, but options against opposition, strategies - how to bowl, setting fields and trying to stay one step ahead of the batsman. Working on doing things that batsmen don’t expect, which vary from things like setting a field, bowling a type of ball, blocking areas that batsmen like to score in and forcing them to hit in areas they are not as comfortable, those little things. I am there just to make sure that they are not going through the motions but that they are there and that they continue to work on things. How do you work with say someone like a Dale Steyn, vis-a-vis a Pradeep Sangwan? Pradeep is a lot less experienced and hence I would spend a lot more time talking to him, try to understand the mental side of his game to see what he is thinking when he bowls and what are his options. I would discuss with him – for instance, if you chose this option what’s your field, and things like that. I try and encourage the mental side because a lot of these guys have good skills; it is about knowing when to use that and how to react under pressure. When a batsman’s batting really well what are the options that you can look at and what sort of fields to stick to, things like changing the tempo of the game and slowing things down, or bowling quicker. It could be all those things. Dale knows his game. I know what he is good at, (but) even with good players you just go and occasionally remind them or encourage them or maybe discuss things like what he can help within the team. He knows a lot of the players that we are playing against, so you’d want him to share from his experience what’s worked against a certain batsman or so on. Do you do one-on-one sessions with them? Yeah, a lot of one-on-one discussions are done because everyone is different. You can’t put everyone under one umbrella. With some if you talk to them too much, you lose them, while others like to discuss their options. T20 being often considered as more intense and challenging for bowlers, how do you prepare them? My motto in T20 is to be aggressively defensive. So it is to go out there and bowl your best ball, one that’s going to be hard as possible for that batsman to hit you for a boundary. That’s your best chance of taking a wicket. And then in terms of your fields, trust your instinct. I try to encourage them that if they are thinking about bowling a certain option, then they should back themselves and really commit a hundred percent to that option. These are the small things that you work with. Do you work on preparing bowlers for death overs and power plays? We do skill work. We work on specific skills for different phases - new ball, middle overs, death overs. Most of these aspects they can do it. (But) Can they replicate it under pressure? And knowing if on a certain day they are not getting it right, what do they do to remedy it or what are their options otherwise. So it is again about opening the discussion. So for instance, if you are looking to bowl yorkers, but you are bowling low full tosses, are you recognising that and what should you do to try and rectify it. People might think it’s just not coming out well today, whereas it might be just be a small thing, it might be looking at the bottom of stumps, looking at the batsman’s shoes, opening their minds to things that they might not be thinking about. How do you see Suresh Raina as a captain and the preparations? Suresh will be very comfortable. He is around a couple of players he has played with in CSK (Chennai Super Kings) and a couple of UP (Uttar Pradesh) players. He has got Jaddu (Ravindra Jadeja), he knows those guys well so he has got a comfortable bunch. He is a very positive guy which is great. He leads by example and I think that will be great. The young Indian players have really gelled well with the international players. Hopefully we can just get into the IPL quickly and hopefully we can get in a few good performances in early. It is tough; you have got 14 games, so it’s a hard two months. But as you have seen before, even teams that don’t start well can win. There are enough games to catch up and we know we’ve got match-winners. We have got really good players who on their day can win matches for us and it is going to happen. We have to make sure we work hard, keep doing the right things and I’m sure we will hopefully be in the mix come the playoff stages and be there in the top four. With a strong lineup, the Lions could have a problem of plenty to chose from you reckon? Only problem we will have is people getting frustrated sitting on the bench. The tough one is because we’ve got Jadeja, (James) Faulkner and (Dwayne) Bravo as all-rounders. It is great for the team because it gives us a lot of options. But when it’s about a specialist, whether it’s a batsman or a bowler, it is always going to be one or two guys who probably would play in most teams but may occasionally find themselves sitting on the bench (here). But that’s a much better problem to have than a problem of not having enough. I think it’s a very good side with good balance. But like anything on paper, you can have the best team in the world but it’s about going out there and performing. We are there to make sure we support them and hopefully the players can put their hands up and go out there and perform. If we do that we can challenge a lot teams out there. Having the experience of coach Brad Hodge and Brendon McCullum augurs well for the team? Hodge has experience of many T20 games. He is great, current and he understands the game because he has been playing it. I think that’s a massive advantage to us. Obviously Brendon and Aaron Finch have both captained their countries so we have got some really good experience on the field from a leadership perspective. We are really looking forward to seeing it all come together and for me it is an honour to be involved and to be alongside some of these guys.