Shane Watson’s attachment to the Rajasthan Royals is incredible. It runs much deeper and stronger than any overseas player the franchise had had in the IPL. After all, he has been the only constant in the team since the inception of the tournament in 2008. It is this powerful bond that sparkled in the form of pride in Watson’s eyes when he watched the Royals clinch their third consecutive win of Pepsi IPL 2015. Nursing a hip injury currently, the Royals captain brimmed with joy as he spoke to iplt20.com after his team beat the Mumbai Indians by seven wickets in Ahmedabad. You haven’t been on the field, but a hat-trick of wins upfront must feel pretty good even from the sidelines. Absolutely. It has been a great start to the tournament for us. I have been very excited about this year because we have a very strong squad. It’s great that we have been able to put it together so far. We got out of jail against Delhi Daredevils and to finish the game today like that was wonderful. Steve Smith batted beautifully today, as he continues to do. Will Steve Smith ever get out of form? Based on the current form, where would you place him among the best batsmen in the world? I think he is on par with AB de Villiers at the moment and Virat Kohli when he is at his best. It is incredible to see him just continue to pile on the runs in every format. It looks like it’s not going to end and let’s hope it doesn’t for quite a while. In Test cricket you play under Smith. Here he is your deputy. Do you discuss captaincy a lot? We do. Steve has got a great feel for the game and great intuition on the field. We talk a lot about different things, including the tactical side of things. He has great skills of the game with the bat and as captain too. There are many things I learn from him as well. How far are you from getting on the field? I got hit around the hip during the first training session of the tournament and it has taken a bit of time to recover. We are going to travel to Vizag overnight, so it’s going to be touch and go for the next game. I will surely be back in the team for our game here against the Chennai Super Kings. Ahmedabad and CCI are your home venues this season. How much do the team’s strategies and combinations change with the change in home venues? We had that (problem of combination) last year and that was something we didn’t adapt quick enough to. The ball turned a lot more here in Ahmedabad than we probably thought it was going to. In this game it didn’t turn so much but the pitch was still quite slow. For us, probably the biggest challenge is not having the home crowd support, more than anything else. We have got the players who can adapt to the wicket and the conditions. But the one thing I absolutely loved about playing in Jaipur was that there was proper home crowd support. Today if you came in here, you would have thought it was the Mumbai Indians’ home game. We have to find a way to get the crowd behind us a little bit more because you definitely feel it on the field. I might have to have a chat with the marketing people at the (Rajasthan) Royals to see what we can do to get more home crowd support. For the first 10 overs today RR’s bowling was brilliant. Do you think the bowlers lost a bit of control in the last 10, especially with the way Corey Anderson and Kieron Pollard went? I think the execution in the last 10 overs wasn’t exactly what we would have liked. But in saying that, Corey and Pollard came in and played beautifully. The wicket wasn’t easy to just come in and hit the ball hard, which they did. It was a bit of an execution problem but we did well to win the game with seven wickets in hand in the end. It was a great learning experience for us as to how we should react when we are put under pressure, which is going to happen often in this tournament. RR have a tendency to bring new players out of obscurity. Is Deepak Hooda the one for this season? Deepak Hooda is something very special. We saw him last year, just in and around the group and in training, and it has worked out very well to give him an opportunity at the start of this season. He is someone who has very special talent. With the ball he reads the batsman really well and with the bat his power is something incredible. You don’t really see it often in India - a young guy coming through who can hit the ball that hard and powerfully. We are very lucky, the Royals, to have him. I know there is a lot of incredible Indian talent and Deepak is certainly one of them. Not often do we see many IPL teams thrusting an inexperienced bloke with an opportunity right at the beginning of the tournament like that. Would you say that the Royals are much braver in that regards? Absolutely. I suppose we do have the belief in the ability and talent of the inexperienced players we bring in. Whether it is Ajinkya Rahane, Sanju Samson, Karun Nair or Pravin Tambe, we have backed them and seen the results. The credit for that goes to the coaching staff who really put together these men and give them the chance to flourish. They are the ones going around India, trying to unearth new talent. All these players who have done well for us over the years, hats off to the coaching staff for them. I am not here doing the ground work and when I come here every year the team is just full of these incredibly talented young Indians.