•You also had some tough luck in U-15, U-17 stage. You have had the habit of missing the World Cups?

When I missed the 2007 World Cup, that was the lowest point in my career.

•That was a good World Cup to miss. It was a disaster.

Absolutely. But before that I thought that I really missed it by a whisker. The first World Cup which I played was the Twenty20 World Cup, and I really wanted to make it count. Fortunately, I ended up being the highest run-getter from the Indian team.

•And since then there’s been no stopping. You played that great innings in the one-day tri-series in Australia.

I didn’t have a very good one-day series against Australia when they were here. As soon as we landed from the Twenty20 World Cup, Australians were here, and we were playing seven ODI matches. I didn’t get runs in the first three ODIs and then I got injured. Then I played the Twenty20 game and became the Man of the Match. After that I had a decent one-day series against Pakistan but my graph in one-day cricket wasn’t that great.

•And there were some suggestions that Gautam Gambhir gets runs against weak teams?

Yeah. When I was in England, people were saying I can only get runs against a weaker opposition. That was one thing which really motivated me, and since then things have turned around.

•Did somebody say something that hurt you at that point, or that really irritated you?

... contd.