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I hate striking out, but at the same time, I'm much better at letting them go rather than, earlier in my career, worrying about it so much before the next at-bat against the guy. You grow as you play, and every year, I work to cut them down.

My dad talks about the times when we'd play backyard cricket: If I got bowled out, I'd just refuse to let go of the bat and swing it at anyone who tried to take it away from me. I like to think that's been tempered a bit over the years.

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.

As a test cricket lover, and as a cricket lover, I like all forms of the game.

I was never any good at cricket thought I love it as a, as a sort of mystery.

The bowlers I respected or feared or rated were not the ones who gave me lip or stared at me or abused me. More the ones who, at any stage of the game, when had they had the ball in hand, they were going to be at me, and they were going to have the skill and the fitness and the ability to be aggressive.

I wasn't sure of the exact mindset you should have when you go into a Test match. So I probably became too defensive when I played my first Test match. Short balls in one-day cricket, I have never thought of just defending.

It's a hard life as a professional cricketer. It's not as easy as everyone makes out. To survive you need a tough hide.

It used to hurt me that people thought I didn't have the technique and the temperament to play Test cricket.