The beauty of Test cricket is all about playing an opponent in their backyard or defending home turf under challenging conditions over five days - dominating each session, dominating each day, picking 20 wickets to win a contest. That's historically been cricket's most fascinating gift.
— Ravi Shastri
I've always maintained that winning and losing will be part of the sport.
With Virat Kohli, what you see is what you get.
When you set out on a journey, you set the bar high but you don't know what you can achieve.
Individual don't matter, and we should all work in the best interest of Indian cricket. It should take the centre-stage.
One-day cricket and T20s have vastly different identities and one cannot look at it through the mere lens of 'white-ball cricket.'
Life is much like batting, treating every ball on merit.
When you are playing a Test match, you would like to be playing with your strongest side.
What my endeavour is to see a happy Indian team playing cricket.
Between 50 overs and 20 overs, there is a big difference, because there is 30 extra overs of fielding and six extra overs to bowl, and that can take its toll.
I am a professional, I believe in work ethics, I believe in contracts.
When you play the game, you want your mind clear. You want to be able to focus inwards without a care in the world for anything outside.
If I have done a competent job, I should be respected for my competency.
I firmly believe Test series should never be two Test matches, three is enough.
In a tournament like the World Cup, you have got to be on top of your game every game.
In a side when you have 15 players there will always be times when there will be opinions that will be different. That is what is needed.
Mahendra Singh Dhoni is the undisputed leader of the Indian cricket team.
It is the cynicism that kills all the joy. I'm not that kind of a guy. I look at the glass half-full.
Opening for the first time in Test cricket, I scored 128 against the likes of Sarfraz Nawaz and Imran Khan.
Virat is everywhere. He is hands on, and very communicative. That's what you want in a captain.
I am used to challenges, bring on another one.
It's a privilege and an honour to be a part of the Indian team setup.
Virat is in your face, he wants to dominate and has a work ethic like no one else. Whether it comes to discipline, training, sacrifice or self-denial, it is unbelievable.
Take up a challenge and treat it as an opportunity. Once you do that and succeed, all you want in life is more such opportunities.
You have to look at youth in whatever you do, in whatever walk of life at some stage.
An 'A' grade cricketer like Pujara should get a massive amount where he is not bothered whether he plays IPL or not.
It's important to have the right mix of experience and youth.
I like honeymoons. The more the merrier.
Sometimes in the subcontinent you just need five batsmen.
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.
Sometimes it might be the junior-most player in the team who may come up with a strategy which we hadn't even thought of and we need to bring that to the table.
In my days, I played under several captains, none of whom were alike.
I have little patience or time for nonsense that's spread around.
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.
In local cricket, I scored big hundreds and picked wickets against good teams.
Sometimes when you are playing non-stop international cricket in all formats - which was the case with Jadeja - you do well one day, get hammered the next, and immediately the spotlight is on you. That eats into you.
When you are asked to open the batting in overcast conditions, it is a challenge.
Opening is about the mindset. You got to respect the new ball.
If we are confident of what we can do, then all opposition simply has to be treated as a whole.
I've been doing breathing routines for years. It is massive. It helped me in commentary as well.
I never want to shy away from a challenge.
The grade contracts of a Test player should be the highest.
I focus on the present.
My job is to do exactly that with every player - to put him in a frame of mind where he is thinking only about his role and he is thinking about the team he is playing for and, of course, the opposition which we always respect.
We want Indian cricket to carry on.
I believe that tours should be only three Tests. With the amount of these things that is taking place, you will find that once you go for five-Test match series, 80-90% of the times the home team will win and you will see teams going straight down after the third match.
The boss is the captain on the cricket field. I am in charge of the coaching staff. That's put into place. My job is to oversee things and see things go all right. Who cares who's the boss? At the end of the day, you win and to hell with it, yaar.
I don't want everyone toeing the same line. You have got to have discussions and someone might then think of a fresh strategy, which has to be encouraged.
Captains have their own personalities and the best ones make players adapt to their thinking and methods.
