Being Rahul Dravid

I was excited to do well in the Test series. It’s always been big touring England,and (the matches) have always been of a high-profile nature. I was aware that it wasn’t going to be easy. But to be honest,leading into the Test match,I was quite happy because of the runs I scored in the West Indies and there was a sense of confidence. But getting into the first Test,it changed into a sense of anticipation and expectation of what might happen over the course of the series.

How was it to finally get the Lord’s hundred?

I had missed out on a hundred when I first came to Lord’s in 1996,which was my debut Test. On two more visits,I never got a hundred there. While it would not have been the end of the world if I had not scored a ton at Lord’s,it is very nice in terms of the history,the tradition and everything that is associated with that ground. So it is nice to get your name on the MCC honours board. Also,I was excited because I thought it was quite a nice hundred in difficult conditions and against a quality bowling attack. To get that hundred was quite satisfying.

There was a short,sparkling partnership with Tendulkar at Lord’s,when both of you were on top of the bowling. Were you sad that there weren’t many such bright spots?

It was one of the few times it happened in the series. To be honest,it was tough from a batsman’s point of view. The ball swung,they had a good quality attack,they bowled well and made us work hard for our runs. It was hard work throughout the series. They had three good fast bowlers and a quality spinner,so it was tough from a batsman’s perspective.

How was the Trent Bridge hundred different from Lord’s?

I thought in Trent Bridge we were setting up the game. We lost a wicket off the first ball and then Laxman and I batted through a very difficult period on the first evening. And then we set up base for a partnership. I thought the batting conditions in Trent Bridge were probably better than some of the other places.

It was probably more fluent than at Lord’s,but the wicket and the weather were also better. A bit of pace and bounce in the pitch and you could play backfoot shots. It set the game up,and at one stage when Yuvraj and I were batting,it looked like we could get a bigger lead than we did. But then Stuart Broad took a hat-trick and our tail collapsed. The way we finished was disappointing,but I felt I was fluent at Trent Bridge.

In terms of control,was the Oval hundred your best?

Yes,in terms of my batting,the control I showed,it was the best hundred. I just felt in control right from the beginning,even my rate of scoring was probably the best. It was also a good wicket. Maybe it was the culmination of the fact that I had batted so well through the series and my confidence was high. Leading into the Test,I really felt good about my batting. In terms of fluency,rate of scoring,carrying my bat through under pressure,it was my finest hundred.

You have faced some great attacks,from an Ambrose-led West Indies to the terrific Aussies. How tough was the relentlessness of this England attack,facing Anderson,Broad,Bresnan ball after ball? How do you rate it?

I think it is not right to compare it to the Australian attack. The Australian attack of Glenn McGrath,(Jason) Gillespie,(Brett) Lee and Shane Warne was probably the best attack I played against. That’s not to say that these guys can’t become that.

Potentially,they have got everything covered and are a very good attack. They have got three-four fast bowlers,plus bench strength,plus a good quality spinner. From that point of view,they can be a very good attack but I still think the Australian one was the best I played against.

You were batting beautifully at Edgbaston till you got that ball from Tim Bresnan.

It was not the easiest of batting conditions,that first morning. We lost the toss and were sent in. Here in England you are going to get good balls and we did get some. You’ve got to accept that. I thought I got a good ball in Edgbaston,and even in the second innings at Trent Bridge,I got a pretty good one. That happens,especially playing against a hard,new ball. The key really for me was to make it count when I could,which I did,which showed everytime I got a fifty or a hundred. That’s something I can take heart from and I was really happy.

You faced a lean phase from 2007 onwards that can be termed as the toughest of your career. For someone with a high success rate,how difficult was it to come to terms with suddenly not scoring runs?

It was not an easy period,it is never easy to not score runs,especially after the kind of success I had in the early part of the decade. That is part of life; that is part of learning. But I never stopped being positive. Definitely there were stages when I doubted myself,but I never lost the joy or stopped enjoying batting. Even though the time was tough and the runs were not coming as I would have liked them to,the joy I got from batting carried me through.

From that perspective,what are your thoughts now at the end of the tour?

It’s nice to be able go through that period and then come and have something like this. I know that I am closer to the end of my career than the beginning and to have a series like this,from a personal point of view,is nice. It was disappointing to lose the series,that will always remain,but it is a bitter-sweet feeling. Personally,there is this satisfaction that this is a good attack and I got some runs. I had to work hard for it,and was able to do it. Sometimes you are not only playing for yourself,but for the people who support you. So to have a series like this in some ways for me was nice after having gone through some tough times. It is good to be able to give something back to those who believed in you and make them feel happy about,something for them to cherish.

Everyone was stunned by the outcome of the Tests. Being a senior batsman,how do you analyse that debacle?

I think we were outclassed by a team which was much better prepared and much better in these conditions. They had a bowling attack which was very good in these conditions,they played some outstanding cricket over the last few years and they were ready. For us,there are lessons to learn from these defeats. It is not the end of the world to lose cricket matches. That’s life,that happens,it’s sport. But it will be great if we can turn this around. This defeat will help us prepare better when we come here the next time to face these people. We need to realise that we need to be better prepared and ready when we come and play in these conditions.

You had a similar experience in Australia (1999-2000),which sowed the seeds for the future successes of Indian cricket. Will this too?

We will only be able to look at the future and say whether this was another turning point. And whether we learnt the lessons from this and moved forward will only be decided by what happens in the future. We learnt some lessons from what happened in the defeat of 1999,and we improved in the 2000s,and we had some fantastic results. Other than Australia,we were the best travelling team. We won Test matches in every country in the world in the last decade,so we made a lot of improvements after the ‘99 defeat. Hopefully this too will trigger something like that in the next decade and who knows,it just could be the wake-up call we all needed. But we need to make it count,we’ve got to learn from it.

Being in the league of great players,what’s your idea of a perfect finish to your career?

You never get a chance to choose how you make your debut and you never get a chance to choose how you will finish. It’s life. You’ve got to just play the sport,enjoy it,and hope things work out well. If you finish well,it’s great; if you don’t finish well,that’s life as well.

I don’t believe that you judge careers,or what people have done for 15-20 years based on one or two matches at the end. It is the body of work over a lifetime that goes into making a success story. It is brilliant to finish nicely,but it may or may not happen and that’s life. To try and finish in a particular way has never been one of my goals. I felt I had some good cricket left in me during the lows and that’s why I continued. It was not a question of proving anything to anybody. It was just nice for me to reinforce the support that I have received from the people. That is what this tour has meant to me.