Throw anything at us...

When it comes to the hype arouns Indo-Pak cricket series, nothing -not even the Ashes comes close. The enthusiasm has to be seen to be believed.

This time around there is a lot of hulla baloo over Pakistan preparing seamer friendly wickets for the series. Do you have any special plan to counter it?
India will have an answer to every missile Pakistan fires at us. Be it pace or spin, India have the bats men to match them. Even if they give us a cement track, we have bowlers who can torment them. Moreover, the Pakistani batsmen are not known to be technical ly strong. We will prepare our strategy only after looking at the wickets there.

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For quite some time, you have not played a big knock. Can we expect it in Pakistan?
I agree that I have not played a good innings for quite some time now. I've had some good starts but have not been able to build on them. I am really trying hard and, hopefully, Pakistan will once again become a happy hunting ground for me and I will be in the thick of runs. Have you made any special preparation for the Pak tour?

No, not really. I always like to play my natural game.

Last time, you made 309 in Multan and were given the `title' of `Sultan of Multan'. This time around, Multan is not a Test venue ... would you be missing Multan?
This title was give to me by the media. Actually, I am feeling a bit strange about the fact that a Test is not being played there. But it doesn't matter... whether the match is played in Multan or Karachi. I could get a new title somewhere else! My aim would be to play a big knock whichever the venue.

Pakistan are on a high after beating England, who travelled to Pakistan after a major win over Australia. Are the Indians under some pressure because of that?
No. It's not like that. Tell me when have teams from outside the sub-continent performed well here? The history of cricket shows that barring a couple of occasions, whenever teams from outside the sub-continent have come calling, they have had to bite the dust. They really haven't done well at all. We don't have any pressure on account of their win over England at least. If they have beaten England, we too have defeated Sri Lanka. There's no point looking back in any case, we'll just be looking ahead to beating Pakistan again.