When I started playing for India for the first time in 1999, I think Jadeja (Ajay) was the captain. And the team was not that good, nobody had that spirit. But now the young blood have joined—Yuvraj, Harbhajan, Zaheer, Ashish, myself... a mixture of seniors and juniors and the newcomers.

• There is a new combativeness, which was earlier seen in the Pakistan team. We used to say jokingly that India should play like Pakistan.

Yes, today we have Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Sreesanth, Irfan Pathan, and Suresh Raina. So there is a very good combination of young players. If you leave aside Dravid, almost all of them are in the age group of 20-30. Besides everyone has a passion towards cricket, a dedication that we have to win all the matches. Every player, they want to finish the match. Especially Dhoni, he wants to finish the match with a six.

• Sunil Gavaskar used to say that there is a problem in Indian cricket or you can call it a weakness of Indian character that everyone thinks I have done 80 per cent of the job, the rest I can leave for the next guy.

I would say that it’s about time for him to change his comments. Because today, we have players who play to finish the game and are there at the crease till they finish it. You must have seen, in the last few games, Suresh Raina and Yuvraj have finished matches. Dhoni has finished a lot of matches.

• Earlier, they used to say India are good losers, they play well and then lose and after that they will shake hands and pat the victorious team. That has changed.

Now we want to win and then shake hands after winning.

• This change has come because cricketers like you who have come from places like Najafgarh, which is very competitive and tough, who were made to compete at every level, people who never got anything easily, neither will they get it in future.

Everyone wants to play cricket but few succeed. Today we have a better success rate because youngsters are performing better. They have taken off the pressure from seniors, everyone is finishing off matches which is very important. But those who come from the grassroot level, they would not have seen such adulation, such money, they would have never seen such publicity so they don’t want to go back to that level and they want to continue at the highest level. That can be one reason behind the competitiveness.

• Viru, is it difficult to manage such fame so much money all of a sudden?

I don’t think there is a problem in handling that. It can be a problem for many.

• It can get to anyone.

I have not seen that. Dhoni, Yuvraj Singh, Harbhajan, myself, Zaheer Khan or Ashish Nehra, we never had any problem in dealing with these things.

• They are level-headed.

Of course, they are mentally strong and they can easily handle it. Those who are satisfied that they have came from villages and managed to play for India and that is it, then it might get on to their heads but...

• We have had cricketers like Vinod Kambli, Sadanand Vishwanath, Laxman Sivaramakrishnan. They came with bang but it appeared that they could not manage the fame.

They have performed for India. You cannot say that. These are famous players.

• But they could not handle fame.

They did manage but they must have thought they cannot play any more and they stepped back. I would not say that they could not handle success. They have been successful and it is not that they did it only for one year but they have performed over years.

• But today would you say that youngsters are more level-headed? Because the money is much higher.

Of course, players like Irfan, Raina... They are not bothered about fame, money. They want to play good cricket and I don’t think they are troubled with success.

• Do you think they have taken pressure off people like you, Rahul?

Yes, of course. When I joined the Indian team, the pressure was on seniors and now the pressure is not so. They took pressure off us.

• And some of the bowlers also, the new fast bowlers?

We did not have many fast bowlers. Now we have Munaf Patel, who is the fastest bowler. Then we have Sreesanth, Ajit Agarkar, Irfan and VRV Singh. We have a good bunch of fast bowlers.

• Who is the best Indian fast bowler that you have seen?

I never played Srinath, I played in the nets. But he was the fastest and a very good bowler. I have played Zaheer Khan when he was bowling really quick. Those two guys are the fastest that I have played in the Indian team.

• What happened to Zaheer, did the injuries hamper him?

He did well in Pakistan, after that they dropped him and now he is playing in county cricket. He should be back in the side if not now may be later on.

• And what about the international fast bowlers that you have faced?

The most difficult one would be McGrath. His line and length is so tight he would not give you any loose ball.

• He would pitch wherever he wants to.

That is the quality of McGrath. He would pitch it wherever he wants to.

• But you got some runs against him.

Yes, but not much. When I got 195 at Melbourne at that time McGrath was injured, he was not playing.

• I thought at 195, when you got out it seemed that you wanted to go to 205 in one shot.

I tried, it was a loose ball, a full toss. I thought if I get a four or a six I would cross double hundred. But sometimes you commit a mistake and learn from it. I have not repeated that mistake.

• Do you feel bad about it or you forget it or you brood about it later in the night?

The day you get out, you definitely think about it. But the next day, you forget it. It is better to forget the past.

• Especially if the team wins.

Yes, but we lost that match in Melbourne. I had it in my mind that I don’t want to repeat that mistake and when we played in Pakistan, in Multan, when I was approaching 200, I took an hour to make those 20 runs so that I don’t get out and my team does not suffer again.

• But you are quite audacious. You were on the verge of making a world record for the first wicket and next morning you played a flashy shot. Is it because you play with heart?

See, with the field that was set, we could not have got a boundary anywhere else. So I thought if I am able to hit a boundary over the keeper we will get the world record. But that was not to be.

• Have you faced this problem in one-day cricket?

You can say that in one-day cricket I am more positive, I am always eyeing to score. I am always excited to hit runs and that way I lose my wicket. I am a stroke-player so I find it difficult to curtail myself but I made efforts to get over this.

• Does anyone tell you in the team, like Rahul has opened with you, does he tell you to play carefully?

Yes, he does. He tells me that if a player like you plays for 40 overs, no team can lose. His thought process is different, he says if you are batting in the 10th over, just imagine if you continue to bat what the score would be in the 30th over. Anyway if you are batting, we would be around 180 or 190, so what is the need to play more strokes?

• You listen to Rahul?

Not only Rahul, I listen to all.

• Who else do you listen to?

Sachin Tendulkar. Srinath used to instruct us a lot when he used to play, then Anil Kumble.

• Srinath had told me in Walk the Talk that Sehwag is a future captain.

Maybe he thought I had the qualities to captain the Indian team.

• I asked him ‘where will you bowl to Virender Sehwag’, his facial expression changed all of a sudden and he said ‘why should I tell anybody where to bowl to Virender Sehwag?’

That is a fair comment, why should he tell everybody where to bowl to me?

• But this Abu Dhabi innings was a comeback innings for you.

You can say that. Because I was not getting runs in last five or six matches so I had to get runs.

• Did you analyse how that slump came?

I was watching on video. What I felt was that my bat was not coming straight, my head was falling forward, that is why I was committing mistakes. I sat down with our computer analyst Ramki.

• It will be very difficult to convince anybody that Virender Sehwag looks at a laptop to see whether his head is coming down or bat is not coming straight. Your image is such that you believe in whacking the ball. You even had a commercial like that..‘ball ka dharam hai boundary’.

I am a very technological person, so any technology that comes in Indian team I would take a look at it and try it.

• What kind of technology?

I introduced in the Indian team a software ‘Media Centre Player’. So you can pause during live TV. You can immediately rewind and watch your batting. It’s a software idea. Microsoft made that programme for the Indian team.

• Which is your favourite innings?

My triple hundred and my first ODI century that I got in 69 balls against New Zealand in Lanka. We were chasing 265-odd runs and we chased that in 40 overs.

• When you were batting like that did the batsman at other end caution you to slow down?

No, I always batted with Sourav Ganguly and Sachin Tendulkar, they never told me anything like that. They told me, “just keep playing your game. Just continue like this till 15th over and after that you can just rotate the strike”.

• What is the difference you saw in different partners? Suppose if you have Sachin at the other end or Rahul or Sourav at the other end?

I don’t really bother about who my partner is. I just want to play my shots.

• What is the most important thing that you have learned from Sachin?

I noticed from Sachin Tendulkar especially that whenever you get a start, get big runs. He has got 39 one-day hundreds. He taught me that if you get 30-40 runs, convert it to a hundred. Because if you get a hundred then you are a match-winner and your team seldom loses.

• And what is the most important thing that you have learned from Rahul?

Rahul always taught me to have patience, he told me that the way you bat no one can stop you from scoring. So you don’t have to compete with yourself, if you do that then you throw your wicket. Rahul told me to have some patience, play for 30-40 overs.

• What is the most important thing you have learned from Sourav?

Sourav I think is the best captain and I have always learnt from Sourav. I learnt from him the tactics on how to handle the pressure. He has got 10,000 runs in one-day cricket.

• Tell me if there is pressure situation then how will Sourav, Rahul and Sachin handle that individually.

I think Sourav is a batsman who would like to release pressure by playing shots.

• I remember his innings in Brisbane.

Similarly Tendulkar, when he is under pressure he will play his natural game, he will continue with his shots till he is through with the patch. And Rahul, I don’t think he ever gets pressurised. But sometimes when he comes in a pressure situation when we want 80 runs in 60 balls, he is a very cool and calm player, he will just play till the end. He knows if we play till the end, we will have a chance.

• But sometimes when India is in crisis, like in that Karachi Test, you can see his face is wound up, we also saw that against England in Mumbai. It looks sometimes that he doesn’t handle those tense periods very well.

His attitude is like that, when tension comes, he is very tense and he would want to release that pressure. He will tell everybody, “ I am here, the Wall is there, so nothing will happen”.

• When you were going through this slump, who did you speak to?

I spoke to Rahul, I spoke to Sachin and then Sunny bhai called me, Srikkant called me and they told me, “just play your natural game. Just go there and play for 4-5 overs, don’t think about anything and everything will come back”.

• What did Greg Chappell say?

He told me, “don’t think you are out of form, always think positive. If you want to get runs and you are not getting them, just think that you are in form and go and play your natural game. Spend some time on the wicket, it’s important”.

• What did Sunny bhai say? Although he was a completely different batsman from you. He was a great batsman.

I have a lot of regard for Sunny bhai, he called me and said, “ just stand on the off stump, because your feet are not moving and when you stand on off stump you can play those incoming deliveries”. And I did that against England and Pakistan.

• We have a hundred crore cricket experts in India and everyone has observed that you were getting out to deliveries coming in at a height from the off-stump and that was started by Makhaya Ntini.

The ball that comes in from off stump can get you bowled or leg before wicket. But the rising ball does not create that much of a problem. If you survive for a while, then you are through. But those balls which pitch outside off-stump and come in, that creates problems.

• That means you benefited from Sunny bhai’s advice.

Thanks to Sunny bhai, he called me from Bangladesh where he was commentating. It was very nice of Sunny bhai.

• You mentioned McGrath. My most memorable moment of watching you was when you were batting against Australia in Chennai at Chepauk on the fourth day. We were about to win the match but the rains intervened. You hit McGrath for two fours in the last over, it was as if you looked into his eyes and you said something to him. Do you remember the last over of that day?

We were chasing 224 and we got 28 without loss and I hit the last ball of the day for a boundary. My message was for the Australian team that we are going to win this match. So I showed that kind of aggression to him.

• No opening batsman looks Glenn McGrath in the eye and says come I will see you tomorrow morning.

We desperately wanted to win, we had lost in Bangalore, so we wanted to win in Chennai.

• What about Australia, people say it should be Australia-India now not Australia-England.

Australia is the No 1 team and we are No 2, so it would be a good thing that we play each other, the excitement is more.

• What is the difference between the present dispensation of Greg Chappell-Rahul Dravid compared to John Wright and Sourav Ganguly?

There is no major difference but every 4-5 years there is a change in the team and that should happen. It was good during both times because we have seen success in both phases.

• When there is team talk, what is the difference there?

Thinking is similar, we were positive then and today also we go with a positive mindset. Techniques have changed, net practice is done differently. We work out on one point every day, we discuss whether we are making progress with the point of view of World Cup. By the time World Cup comes, we would have discussed every aspect and we would be ready for it.

• Do you think when Ganguly was captain there was more aggression?

We are aggressive today also. We have won 16 matches in a row chasing which has never happened in the past. We see to it that when we chase we don’t panic, which we earlier used to do, that is a new thing in the team.

• And Sourav, do you miss him?

Yes, we miss him. We always miss senior players like Sourav, Sachin, and Kumble.

• Sourav and Sachin are people who are still around, in the sense you talk with Sachin in terms of his injury, his recovery, he had a tough time lately.

Yes, we don’t want to disturb him. I sent him an SMS when he had undergone operation, he replied saying ‘I am feeling better’ and I replied ‘We are looking forward to seeing you’.

• Sourav is someone who has made our headlines for the wrong reasons. How do you look at it? Do you see, do you think he has cricket left ahead of him? Do you talk with him now?

I never read newspapers, I don’t watch TV channels. I talked to Sourav a lot when he was with us. I called him when I was in Jamshedpur, we had a good chat. He is a good human being, he was the man who built this team in 1999-2000 and we reached the final of the World Cup.

• He was the one who looked Steve Waugh in the eye, which not many Indians could do?

He was a good captain, I remember him. He is a good man.

• Do you see him fighting his way back, at least in the Test team?

Yes of course, he was playing in first class, you never know, maybe in the next series he will come back. Still a lot of cricket left in him.

• What is the target for West Indies? For a long time now, we have not performed well in West Indies.

We won the one-day series last time and we drew the Test series 1-1. Ever since I have joined the team it has not been bad. Last time, I had not played in the Test matches there.

• What is the next target, beat West Indies and do you also dream of batting in a game where you have to chase 400?

We are looking forward to the West Indies tour. We want to beat West Indies in West Indies. We want to carry on like this till the World Cup and win the World Cup.

• At least one game where you have that chance to better that 400 plus chase, did you watch that and did you wanted to be in it?

Of course.

• On which side? When you saw that did you feel sorry for the Australians?

Yes I did, but South Africa played very well and they deserved to win.

• Cricket is now changing, 400 can be chased now.

You can say if you set a target, everything is achievable now.