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Equally, though, there are guys who play England Under 19 who don't even play First Class cricket. It is a watershed in the careers in many ways.

If players are performing for you, their age shouldn't really matter, especially because the older players can bring their experience to the table.

You need to protect the best players in the country. When there is so much cricket, we must work on ways to prolong their careers.

The era of playing aggressive cricket and to have the mid-on up is gone. You now try to read the mindset of a batsman.

Even though it's a shortened format of the game, Twenty20 allows people with different skills to play in a team and play their specific roles. Obviously there's not too much time to waste balls, but if you look at guys who play well in the top six, they have a fairly decent amount of good cricketing ability.

In a cricket career, your life is in some ways controlled for you. You have no control over schedules, you have no control about where you want to play, you don't have control over that as a cricketer.

Virat Kohli has so far shown that he has more ability and talent than anybody else, and if he can play till 32 or 34 with same fitness and without injuries, he will come to a point where not even Vivian Richards neither Sachin Tendulkar had such a record.

Test cricket is the only thing that counts. One-day and T20 performances are fine, but you rate a player by his status as a Test player. By the time I finish, I want to play at least 80 Tests and be known for my achievements in Tests.

When I was 40, my doctor advised me that a man in his 40s shouldn't play tennis. I heeded his advice carefully and could hardly wait until I reached 50 to start again.

If you are good at studies, and you want to play cricket, you may work harder than any other person, but you may not achieve it. So it's something you have to balance in life and be practical where you are good and then channelise your efforts in the right direction to be successful in life.