You have seen cricketers who are not god-gifted, but even then, they have gone far. That's because of the passion.
If you don't perform, and you're part of the team, whether you're playing your first Test or 50th Test match, criticism goes hand in hand, so that's something you can't really get away from. If you don't perform, you will be criticised.
I'm quite used to playing with few injuries, whether it is back, fingers, elbow, or something else. You have to be tough and get on with the game.
Maybe because I bat aggressively and go for big hits at times, people tend to remember my batting. But I have always done well as a stumper, too.
When people talk about South Africa, it's all about lions and elephants. But when we talk about India, we talk about tigers.
I believe in giving more than 100% on the field, and I don't really worry about the result if there's great commitment on the field. That's victory for me.
My dad and my brother were more keen on football, but I used to play canvas-ball cricket while at school in Ranchi, and we would have cricket coaching camps in the summer vacations. That's how I started.
As a skipper, when you try to manipulate the field, you need to see the strengths of the fast bowlers.
I love being in the present. When I was playing for my school, the only thing I wanted to do was get selected for the under-16 or the under-19 district teams. When I was selected for the district, I would think about the next level, which was getting selected for the state side. I'm a person who lives very in the moment.
If you play cricket for India, money is bound to come, and with IPL in and match money of the Ranjhi trophy, I think money is there. There's no good reason why you should not work hard, because at the end of the day, you want to play for your country.
Since 2005, I have not spent much time with my family. In fact I have spent more time at the Taj Landsend in Mumbai. It was my 100th visit recently, which means I have spent more than 400 days in that hotel, and that is a lot more than I have spent with my family.
The biggest learning during my tenure as a captain was that, a lot of time, I used to think that this is common sense. But no, there is nothing called common sense.
During a packed season, maintaining fitness becomes tough because you can't put too much effort into it. You're constantly monitoring workloads.
After one Olympics, if we invest in sports and say we will get a gold medal in the next Olympic, it doesn't work like that in sports. How it works is that you provide the infrastructure, provide education about nutrition and health.