"I grew up playing on unprepared surfaces where your wicket depended on quickly adapting to the bounc..." — Gautam Gambhir

At one point, when I didn't make the 2007 World Cup squad, I was very, very frustrated. Then I became very hard on myself. Whenever I used to go to the nets, or when I trained in the gym, I was very hard on myself. I couldn't sleep; I used to think a lot. Very, very desperate to make a comeback.

If a youngster can come up to me and share his problems or share his experiences or share something that he does off cricket, that can obviously help you build a better relation with one-on-one, and that can help you captain him on the cricket field.

I think you need to be a leader, not a captain. You may have seen a lot of captains in this country, but the most important thing is to be a leader.

I believe in backing players and helping them out with their game.