He may have had to relinquish his captaincy and a place in the side during the World Cup, but Kings XI’s George Bailey utilized his ‘spare’ time to prepare himself for the IPL.
With the pitches in India known for helping spinners, Bailey worked on formulating a plan to counter spin.
"I usually spend a lot of time training when I am not playing, so no issues there. But it was special to be part of a World Cup winning squad, regardless of the fact I did not get to play much," said Bailey, who will be leading the Kings XI Punjab.
"There were a few things I worked specifically on with Darren Lehmann (Australia coach). I knew that coming across to India, I would be playing lot of spin bowling in this (T20) format. So besides fine-tuning my T20 game, the focus was on tackling quality spinners," Bailey said.
‘In our first year, we surprised a lot of other teams’
With Steven Smith likely to assume captaincy role from just-retired Michael Clarke, Bailey believes that currently he needs to focus on the job at hand.
"We obviously enjoyed the success (in World Cup) but most of the guys have shifted their focus to IPL and we will be coming across each other as opponents now.
"The big change this season will be about meeting the standards we set last year. In our first year, we surprised a lot of other teams. This year, we are one of the hunted teams.
"So it will be about handling our own expectations. As long as we are able to play what we are capable of, I think we can have some more success," said Bailey, who has been training with the team in Pune.
‘It is important that perform as a unit’
He said his World Cup teammates Glenn Maxwell and Mitchell Johnson will again hold the key to team's fortunes.
"Going into IPL, the major thing is that everyone has been playing a lot of cricket. And it looks everyone is in pretty good form.
"The regular guys (Maxwell, Johnson, David Miller) will no doubt be key again. But what was encouraging last year was the development of some of the Indian guys like Manan (Vohra), Patel (Axar) Wriddhiman Saha, Rishi Dhawan. That really complimented the star power we have.
"The opposition can assess quickly whether we rely on one or two guys though the tournament and if they do it, then we are going to find it hard to have sustained success. So it is important that perform as a unit," added Bailey.
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