'When I start thinking too much, I'm in trouble'
One-time wild boy Jesse Ryder says he has had plenty of time out of cricket to think about his game. It's all about patience for him now, he says
I think I sort of know my role in the team now and what I have to do while I am out there batting. I am not thinking about other stuff. I just play my natural game. The coaches have given us our jobs to do and we play our games. They give us the freedom to express ourselves when we are out there.
To be aggressive at the start, depending on how the other batsmen go. It also means I need to bat through 30 overs and set up the game for the lower-order batsmen.
Wrighty is really good, just says it how it is. He keeps it simple as well, knows how we play and lets us just play to our ability. He backs us, expects us to turn up and train hard.
Just patience. Nailing your game down to how you want to play. It does take a while to get everything sorted in your game. The sort of position I'm in now, I have played enough to know my game. And that is part of my game where I get into a stage to get a run a ball, because I can naturally hit the bad ball.
I always go in with that confidence. At the moment I am striking the ball well in the nets. Even in the Pakistan series [at home] when I got all those ducks in a row, I was still striking the ball, and I always felt that the big score was coming. And I got a fifty in the first one-dayer and a hundred in the last one. So as long as I'm striking the ball well and training properly I'm still feeling good going out there in the middle.
It was the patience. Since I have got to the World Cup I have been a bit more patient. The moment I start thinking too much, I am in trouble. If there is too much on my mind that is when I am in trouble. When I am basically not thinking about other things I can express myself better.
In the Test matches it is different because you have got all the time in the world, so it is pretty easy to switch off. I like to joke with the likes of Martin Guptill and I like having fun. I can't reveal much but we do talk about dance moves and stuff. I usually stay away from cricket when I am not playing. I follow a lot of rugby league [Melbourne Storm], and having played basketball during my young days I still play it and follow the Boston Celtics. It is just excitement I get watching those sports. All my mates are into the same sort of things as well. We have got a sweepstakes that we do every year, where we pick the winner of each game and the person who comes out on top takes about $1000 away. There is a bit of gambling involved, of course.
It is one of the jobs I perform on tours - be the music guy, carry the speakers, sort out the music in the change room. I have got loads of songs on my computer - about 20,000. It is not an easy job. I have got to get the variation there. Luckily I have a lot of different stuff on the playlists, which caters to everyone's tastes. A big hit at the moment is Dave Dobbin, a guy from New Zealand. He played to us before the Pakistan match in Auckland. I use that to get the team going before matches at times.
I am seen as a bad boy - reckless and stuff like that from my past. But now I am a pretty chilled out, low-key sort of person who likes to have fun. It is sort of how I have grown up and what I know.
Sometimes. It spurs me on more than anything, makes me want to score runs. If it is in my zone I am still going to play my shots, if it is one of my strong shots.
"I like to joke with the likes of Martin Guptill and I like having fun. I can't reveal much but we do talk about dance moves and stuff"
I like Ross Taylor, who seems unstoppable when he gets in the mood. [MS] Dhoni is good to watch when he is going as well. I don't watch too much cricket unless I'm playing it. Even when I get out I tend to not watch too much of the cricket.
That is probably my worst game. What I'm still learning is that in Twenty20 cricket you have actually got more time than you think.
The last innings against Pakistan in Auckland was probably my best innings in the recent past. I backed myself and played my shots. I was not thinking too much, kept it very simple - see the ball, hit the ball.
I feel good when I stand up quite tall and hit it over cover-point. That is the shot that has come out of nowhere, really. When I play it I'm usually trying to block the ball. But actually if I give it a little bit more there is a chance of getting runs. And if I hit that off a good-length ball then it might make the bowler think about not pitching on the same length again.
Patience is probably the biggest thing that has changed. The time I've had sitting out in the last two years has allowed me to think a lot about my game and work on my game.
Nagraj Gollapudi is an assistant editor at ESPNcricinfo