Irfan now admits that an overdose of advice “does affect you, at the end of the day”. As for filtering sense from all those opinions, Irfan says “sometimes it gets difficult. But you’ve got to accept the fact that they are doing it to help you, not harm you.”

Meanwhile, “there was a brief spell in the Champions Trophy (October-November) when I was bowling really well, especially in our first match against England. But again, the next time, things didn’t work. I still feel if I had got at least two consecutive good outings, I could have got back. But that didn’t happen. Then things started getting bad again.”

Well, bad is not the word. Irfan played just three one-dayers in South Africa (November-December), was not picked for the first Test. And then, embarrassingly, he was sent back to India by skipper Rahul Dravid who could not find a slot for him in the team for the rest of the tour.

“In the Port Elizabeth one-day game, I bowled really well. I didn’t get any wickets, but that was a good spell that largely went unnoticed. Unfortunately, things were being measured in terms of wickets, not in good spells. In the end, even I started feeling the pressure... I never cried, but I came close to it maybe four or five times, once in South Africa, twice in the West Indies,” says Irfan.

He returned to play for Vadodara but “obviously, it was not a good feeling. I was convinced though because Rahul wanted me for the World Cup. Rahul told me, ‘Don’t expect when you go there you are going to take a lot of wickets. Just take it slowly, don’t put too much pressure on yourself’.”

... contd.