If Rohit succeeds in Tests, India can chase down targets they haven't before - Sanjay Bangar

At the moment, there is no place in the settled middle order in the Test team. Opening will be a new challenge for him, since he has rarely done it in the longer formats. But the advantage is that he will get to bat against a hard ball with plenty of gaps in the field. He will also not have to wait for his turn to bat, which will save his mental energy.

If he succeeds, his style of play will be extremely helpful to the team. It might result in being able to successfully chase down targets that we haven't achieved in the past, like in Cape Town and Edgbaston.

The key to his success will be if he maintains his individual style of play. He has to maintain his individuality.

It has been a memorable journey [India going] from No. 7 in the world to No. 1 in Test cricket. The team won 30 out of 52 Test matches played, including 13 overseas Test victories. In ODI cricket, the team won in all overseas countries convincingly. Overall, the team won 82 out of 122 matches. So it gives me immense pride that I was part of this phase of Indian cricket, for which I am grateful to the BCCI and to all the head coaches I worked with - Duncan [Fletcher], Ravi [Shastri] and Anil [Kumble] - for giving me an opportunity to serve the Indian cricket team for five consecutive years.

I believe that South African conditions are the most challenging in the international circuit, especially Cape Town and Johannesburg. We faced those conditions on our tour of 2018, and we also had very little time to adjust there - precisely six days before the first Test started. Those Test matches were the toughest one could encounter. The team is very proud of one of the most courageous displays by our batting group in Johannesburg in a memorable victory. And then to go on and dominate the ODI series and win it 5-1 was equally praiseworthy.

We had extensive simulated preparations, tailored to the conditions we were likely to play in. That allowed us to overcome the challenges we faced, eight out of ten times. We developed a better understanding of angles, and how to maximise them in terms of run-scoring.

In the shorter format, we paid great attention to strike-rotation targets. I thought the work ethic of the batting group around these factors helped us deliver consistent results. We also assessed the goals and processes we had set up on a regular basis.

Rahane missed out on converting a lot of fifties into hundreds in the last 18 months or so, but otherwise, he contributed in all our overseas victories. He contributed in Johannesburg, in Nottingham and in Adelaide.

We worked a lot on leading with his head and shoulder to get a proper stride into the shot, and also on finishing his trigger movements before the ball was released. I was very happy for him that he eventually crossed the three-figure mark in West Indies, where once again he played a pivotal role under seaming conditions.

He has been very gracious in acknowledging that the things we've worked on together have helped him at various points. [Rahane spoke about Bangar's inputs after scoring twin centuries in the Delhi Test against South Africa in 2015, having come into the match with only 39 runs in three Tests before that.]

The thing that is unique with Virat is that he is always on the lookout for improving his game. He was willing to make minor adjustments suggested, if he believed it could help him. So we worked on aspects like width of his stance, his backlift, his head position etc.

You came on board right after Kohli had perhaps his lowest phase as a batsman in England in 2014. What did you focus on?
That time the positioning of his back-foot toe was towards cover-point at the time of release, which led to his hips opening. That also did not allow his bat's downswing to come in a vertical plane. He worked tirelessly to iron out those flaws.

Our batting in Australia, in 2014-15 and 2018-19 was outstanding, amongst the best ever by a visiting side. The top-order batting in particular was very good across all tours.

In overseas conditions, perhaps we lacked runs lower down the order. We have allrounders in the spin department, which helps in India, but in overseas conditions, we didn't have as many fast-bowling allrounders. Our top and middle order out-batted the opposition, but the lower order did better for the opposition.

The team management was able to achieve a mindset shift of playing outside their [players'] comfort zones by often batting first, irrespective of the conditions. I am very happy with the results achieved not only by the top order but also by Wriddhiman Saha, Ravindra Jadeja, R Ashwin and Bhuvneshwar Kumar in the lower order. Credit to the work the players put in and their drive to achieve excellence.

All our preparations to this point in T20 cricket were done keeping an eye on the 50-overs World Cup. However, the current set up will have a sufficient number of T20I matches before two T20 World Cups are played in consecutive years. So, from a combination point of view, it gives enough opportunities for the players to be exposed to match situations relating to their roles.

Apart from team success, what are the most memorable moments you've had with the team during these five years?
I shall fondly remember the gratitude expressed by all the batsmen to me for the performances that we were able to create collectively.

I'll miss singing the national anthem, and helping young people achieve their dreams.