A few good words don't just make your day but they also give the sense of belonging and confidence to take the next big step forward.
I am a professional, I believe in work ethics, I believe in contracts.
You know, when a fast bowler comes back after a series of five Test matches and then straightaway has to go into a one-day series with a three-day break, a T20 series with a one-day break, it is tough.
As a child I played cricket as a hobby. Once you started playing for your school, you became more ambitious. You reckoned you could play for the state. Then you started to think about the country. But it happened so quickly for me, I started playing for the school at 13, for Bombay at 17, and at 18 I was in the Indian side.
Once you have a good bowling attack that can take 20 wickets anywhere, then no game is an away game. Every game is a home game. It doesn't matter what the pitch is, you have the ammunition.
The job satisfaction that an opener gets no other batsman gets.
MS Dhoni is a massive influence on the team. He is a living legend in the dressing room and an ornament to the game.
You don't come to a cricket ground to draw a cricket match.
Half the guys commenting on MS Dhoni can't even tie their shoelaces.
Virat is everywhere. He is hands on, and very communicative. That's what you want in a captain.
The World Cup has its own space that needs to be respected.
In Australia nothing comes easy. It's one of the hardest places to play.
If you look at cricket per se, if you didn't have T20 cricket, Test cricket will die. People don't realise. You just play Test cricket, and don't play one-day cricket and T20 cricket, and speak to me after 10 years. The economics will just not allow the game to survive.
When you have seven to eight players performing game after game, you are on an absolute roll.
It is the cynicism that kills all the joy. I'm not that kind of a guy. I look at the glass half-full.
We play every game to win and take the game forward. And if in trying to win we lose a game, tough luck.
Fearless means trusting your instincts and clarity of thought. Once you have made up your mind, don't be scared of what if.
I have been manager, director, now I am head coach, and it's the same role. Absolutely the same role.
Sometimes wisdom comes to us when it can no longer do any good.
As long as we know the job we are doing and we are honest to our jobs, as long as support staff we are helping players channelise their energies in the right direction, we are not worried about what critics say.
