The troubled times have helped me trust my own judgement. Every morning when you wake up, you like to tell yourself, ‘okay, here’s something that I did well’ or ‘this is something I have to avoid’. I guess it’s natural for everybody. It is very important to analyse each day of your life and learn from it. In international cricket, there are good days and there are bad days. On a bad day, luck will not be on your side, and it gets worse when you have all kinds of people analysing all sorts of things. I agree that there will always be criticism, and positive criticism should be respected.

But, from my own experience, these are the times that tell you who your best friends are.

Over the last two years, which has been the toughest phase for you — cricket-wise and personally?

•The toughest time was from the South Africa tour till I left for the World Cup. It was the worst phase of my career, and I hope I always see better days in the future. If you play so much cricket continuously, perhaps this is bound to happen. You want to tell yourself it is a learning process, and to believe it. But as much as I may have told myself that, it was a disturbing time. Maybe it was my fault alone but I think a part of the blame must go on the hectic scheduling. It was only when I was given a break that I realised what could’ve been missing. Now, I am better prepared to handle it all.

... contd.