Thinking positive, and keeping it simple

When the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) announced that the entire team would be available for an interactive session with the media, they realized that Sachin Tendulkar would be the prime target for all journalists. True to form, several cricketers were left waiting for someone to interview them, while Tendulkar was swamped by the media. Amid all the attention, Tendulkar opened up and spoke with warmth when confronted with an array of different questions. Excerpts:

Do you have any target for the Tests?
Till date, [I have] never gone out with any specific target as such. I just want to go out to the middle and watch the ball closely. That is more important [than any target]. I don't think so much about the result. I just try and keep it as simple as possible.

What about targets as a batsman?
It was a dream to play for India for as long as possible. But I never took any pressure or thought about what might happen if I didn't succeed. That thought never entered my mind. God willing, I had only positive thoughts. I always thought that having reached this stage, I would try and prove myself.

Do you have a target in terms of number or runs or centuries?
When I started out, I never thought, "I have to make so many hundreds" or "[I] have to do this or do that". I never thought like that. Obviously, any batsman will say "I have to make lots of hundreds, play so many years, and make these many runs". Everyone has thoughts like that, but I never had any fixed target as such.

Some players have said that they are viewing this series as just another series. What about you?
To be honest, it is a little more [intense] than playing anyone else [would be], because the atmosphere changes around you. You start getting calls from your friends and well-wishers all of a sudden, and they start talking about India and Pakistan. But eventually, I would say that it's cricket, and it's surely as competitive as any other match. From my personal point of view I think that I am playing for India, and it doesn't matter who I play against. When I play for India, it is competitive cricket. I don't want to fool around on the ground. I want to be serious and try and make the most of those six hours on the ground. So it is a little more, obviously, the pressure is a little more and the expectations from the people are higher, but we eventually play cricket.

You said you had sleepless nights before the World Cup match against Pakistan. How has it been here?
It's been good. The World Cup game was a little different. It had a different significance altogether because that was a crunch game for us and also for Pakistan. Before that we hadn't done well. We desperately wanted to do well in that game. We played well in Australia, which was good for the team as a whole. The entire team spent close to four months together, two months here and two months in Australia, which really helped. As a team, we figured out our strengths and our weaknesses. But these five games have been very exciting. Obviously, it wasn't as if there wasn't any pressure, but I wouldn't say [that there was] as much as the World Cup match.

What is it about the cricket in this series that is special?
I think it has been great because collective performance, and the team's victory, is the most important thing. We have proven that this time. Different players have performed well in various games, and have been nicely supported by other members of the team. Be it scoring 20 runs or a quick 10 or a steady 40, a brilliant run-out or a good over, or a good catch. All these factors have really clicked together. We have been able to put [together] a decent total [every] time. Peshawar was a difficult track to bat on initially, and the toss was a rather crucial factor, but generally I feel the whole team has played very well, and we really felt good about this whole series.

Talk us through that catch you took to dismiss Inzamam-ul-Haq
He had played that shot in the first game in Lahore as well, and I was ready for that. I thought, "if he plays that again and mistimes it, I am going to be the one to catch it". I was hoping for that and it happened, so I was pretty excited about it. Inzamam is a great player, someone who can take the game away from you and you won't even realise [it] because he is so talented. His wicket was very important and the catch was rather eventful, so it was really exciting.

What do you feel about the "chokers" tag that India have acquired in recent times?
It's an opinion, all we can do is play and perform. We cannot keep just pointing out our victories to everyone. If you speak to ten guys, they will have ten different views. We have to focus on what we have to achieve as a team.

But have you ever thought that the team had trouble finishing matches?
Earlier, we came so close to winning. In the World Cup we lost two games, and we lost both of them to Australia. No-one else beat Australia, and if you look at it from another point of view, the Australians were the only ones who beat us in the World Cup. It was disappointing. We won the final game in West Indies as well, but people tend to forget about those things. They focus sometimes a little more on the negative aspects, which are actually very few. So you pinpoint those aspects. But things happening around those defeats, [and] people tend to ignore [them] because [that is] convenient.

But the tag of being chokers still remains ...
As a team, we were really focussed. In India, when we played New Zealand, it was a crunch game in Hyderabad. Either New Zealand were going to qualify, or India [were]. We won, and nobody spoke about that game. And when we played Australia -- Australia have been beating everyone, they are a great side -- but again in Australia, we lost to Australia. All these factors are not being considered, actually. We won the NatWest Trophy, nobody speaks about that.

How good is Pakistan's bowling attack?
They are a good bowling side. They have got talented bowlers, a blend of youth and experience. Shoaib has played for five-six years, so he is an experienced campaigner, backed by Sami and Shabbir who are young and talented. Obviously, Saqlain has been around for a long, long time. He is also an experienced bowler.

How does this Pakistan attack compare with ones you have played against in your debut series?
I think that attack was different, it was an experienced attack. Nobody becomes an Imran Khan overnight. Imran had to work hard on the ground for so many years, then he became Imran Khan. He didn't become a legend in two years, he played 19-20 years. {it is a] similar case with Wasim and Waqar. They performed consistently so well for so many years, and that's when people put them right up there, which they fully deserve. As I said, Sami and Shabbir, they are talented youngsters. And Shoaib has been around for a while, he is already one of their best bowlers. And Saqlain, he has been around for a while, he has done exceedingly well. You have to give them time.

What were you feeling before you left on the tour?
Before coming here, I had a minor back problem and the thought came to my mind that whenever I play against Pakistan or am going to Pakistan, something goes wrong with my body. Why is that? I was just keeping my fingers crossed that everything settles because it happened in Chennai, it happened in South Africa, now here too. Fortunately things have been better here.

Are you still thinking about the Test match loss against Pakistan in Chennai? It was a huge disappointment, yeah. We got so close to it and we couldn't make it. So yeah, it was a big disappointment.

Anand Vasu is assistant editor of Wisden Cricinfo. He will be following the Indian team throughout this tour.