A lot of people say that Sourav as captain was responsible in the transformation in the attitude of the Indian team. What's your thought on this?
Yes, definitely, because the way the captain leads is very, very important and Sourav was the captain during that phase, when we actually changed the trend or the way we approached an overseas tour. Along with that, I give a lot of credit to John Wright because he instilled in us the hunger to do well abroad. So it's a combination of Sourav and John, and the hunger in each one of us that we have to do something we've never done before.
Also I think when Sourav was the captain, he gave each and every player confidence. Once he believed that a player was a match-winner, he backed him. For me, that has been his strongest point. Because of him, a lot of match-winners emerged during his tenure. Then, he's been of an aggressive nature as a captain. I especially remember the 2001 series, when Steve Waugh started talking and giving his statements from Australia (laughs), Sourav started to retaliate and give it back to Steve Waugh, which spurred us on. That's why the contest in an Australia-India series is so intense, and I think Sourav is the man who started it all. There've been a lot of attributes to his captaincy, and his batting. We enjoyed playing alongside him and he was definitely a great team man.
