I would like to ask, Should not a player who has played 12 to 13 years for his country deserves a farewell match?
Coach should be a friend, not a coach. And at international level, all you need is a friend who can motivate you. Technique doesn't matter.
I don't like to party. I like to spend time with family on my birthday.
It doesn't matter whether you move your feet or not; if your head is still and body is in balance, you can score lots of runs. This I learned from Tendulkar.
To say that the captain makes the team lose or win is not correct.
I am the superstitious kind: I never praise a shot because I fear the moment I do so, the batsman gets out.
No Indian wants their sports persons to get left behind or any particular sports to get left behind.
Once I took to Twitter and shared those jokes, they became a huge hit. My following grew, and some of the posts got thousands of retweets. With so many shares, money from sponsors followed.
God has been kind, and I have done what I wanted to do - on the field and in my life.
I was scared of facing only one bowler - that was Muttiah Muralitharan.
No doubt, if you go through records, Dhoni is India's best captain to date. Beating Sourav Ganguly, he won the Tests, ODIs, and T20s, won both the World Cups. Nobody can deny that, but to give credit to a single person is not good; others should also get credit for winning the Cups.
When I began my life journey, we'd survive on Rs 500 a month as a family. As time passed and I started playing for the country, this Rs 500 multiplied manifold, but it was not the money that mattered: it was the fact that I was fulfilling my ambition of playing cricket on the highest platform, representing my country.
People say I take too many risks. But the fact is, there is risk involved in every shot. You can get out trying to defend a ball as well.
I used to prepare in advance on how the bowler is going to bowl, whether is he going to bowl an outswinger or an inswinger? I used to watch the videos of the bowler and used to prepare in advance.
April 2nd is a memorable moment of my cricketing career.
When a person becomes satisfied, he doesn't run after things, doesn't worry about it, and doesn't make efforts.
I have been successful as an opener, but who knows, maybe I would have been more successful in the middle order.
I have a gym at home where I do weight training as well as cardio. I love doing bench press but cannot share information on how much weight I lift. I also practise Yoga. My guru Sadhguru taught me different kriyas like Surya Namaskar, which I do for my personal well being.
I would want to change my name to Sachin Tendulkar if I could do it. He has tons of records; I am not even close to him. He is called as the 'God,' and who would not want to be a God in this mortal world?
Only great players can have two shots for one ball, like Tendulkar does, and a big reason is that he picks the ball very early.
Playing for India was a memorable journey, and I tried to make it more memorable for my team mates and the Indian cricket fans. I believe that I was reasonably successful in doing so.
Sachin Tendulkar was one of the fittest players.
Like life, the beauty of sports is that no two periods are identical.
After you score 300 runs in one innings, you begin to feel that every innings should be close to this one. Of course, I know that won't happen. But I will be disappointed if I get going well and am unable to convert it into a huge score.
If you are disciplined, it shows you are organised.
I learned from Tendulkar how to get big hundreds.
When I faced the likes of Shoaib Akhtar and Brett Lee for the first time, I had a little bit of fear in my mind. My thoughts were, 'Would I be able to face them? Would I be able to play them? Would I be able to hit boundaries?' There were so many questions and fear, also, that if the ball didn't hit my bat, it might hit me on the body.
My father was a farmer, and we have had some farming land in Haryana. Maybe I would have followed his footsteps and become a farmer.
There is no point playing in the IPL when I have retired from international cricket. I did not want a youngster to miss out because of me.
Cricketers are worried about their milestones, worried that they should score 5000-10,000 Test runs, but I am not fussy.
My shot selection has to be good to score big runs.
It's the duty of the federations to make sure that the funds reach the athletes properly. They need to make sure that the athletes get proper facilities so that they can win the medals for the country.
When I was growing up, we would play a 10-over or 15-over game, and the asking-rate would always be high, and I would end up scoring 30 or 40 runs in 15 balls, so I built that mindset right from the beginning and still continue to bat in the same manner.
Players like Ravindra Jadeja, Yusuf Pathan, Warner, Glenn Maxwell were noticed at IPL first. It is a platform for players all over the world.
I don't think it's correct to blame the captain. He at least tries to keep all together so that the team plays well, plays positive cricket, and wins the match for the country, and not think about only winning and earning a name for himself.
As a cricketer, everybody has a dream to play for your country.
My best India v. Pakistan moment is from our first match in the ICC World T20 2007, which was a tie.
There has been the negative impact of spot-fixing and match-fixing, but it is the individual player's responsibility to look after that because if a player wants to do that, it is difficult to stop him. It is the individual player's responsibility to play fairly.
If a player is playing IPL and earning money, it's not his fault that he's not playing for India. He is not quitting. He is playing first-class, one-day cricket and IPL. If selectors don't pick him, what can he do?
When I was growing up, I played a lot of ten- and 12-over games, and I would bat in the middle order. I got only ten-odd balls to face, and I tried to score as much as I could. I applied the same approach in domestic and international cricket, and people were appreciating my strike rate being more than 80 or 90 in Test cricket.
Many stories come from the dressing room that one doesn't speak when you are playing but can do once retired.
A sort of sadness shall always remain in my mind that I was not allowed to retire while playing, but anyway, it's all a part of life for a sportsman who, while playing, never realises when he should retire, but he starts thinking about it when he is dropped.
I thought I could have breached Brian Lara's 400 runs. When I scored 319, I was unbeaten at 309 but then got out. So I think I could have reached that mark, but unfortunately, I missed it.
Every coach desires to bring in his own support staff.
When I took up cricket seriously, I wanted to play for India. When my dream was achieved, I thought what next? Then a fellow cricketer told me, 'Playing for India is easy; playing for 10-15 years is difficult.' Then I changed my dream to play 100 Test matches. I achieved that as well. Now there is nothing to achieve, so I am just enjoying things.
In international cricket, the atmosphere changes, and the interest level is higher, but for a cricketer, it is still a game he has to play.
Whenever senior players are missing, its ideal for youngsters to avail of these opportunities.
I have never hidden my injury before, or fitness problems. Even my shoulder operation was planned after consulting the then coach Gary Kirsten and skipper MS Dhoni.
To participate in a World Cup is a great honour and achievement. I've played in three World Cups. The whole world watches you during a World Cup and expects you to play innings to win games for your country.
