[Music]
how strange was it taking the field for
the last time it hadn't hit me to be
honest
you know i knew it was
there were a lot of things happening
around the last two games that i played
but
the it only hit me once
west indies lost their last wicket
i couldn't control my tears that time
and
till then i knew i mean yes i'm going to
retire but
when that ball was done
i said to myself okay that's it
never ever in your life you will walk
out on the field
as
an international player for india
playing
proper international match
that's it
that hit me
because that that is all i wanted to be
in life that is all i wanted to do
uh that
that journey was for 24 years which was
a long journey i want to run through
some notable moments from your career
and just get what comes to mind okay uh
the first one being the day you wore the
india cap for the first time
well unbelievable feeling there was no
plan b in my life there was just plan a
and
that was it i was going to chase that
that turned into reality was a mega
moment the eve of the 1994 match at eden
park and
a teammate gets a neck injury your
fortune's kind of changing we are yeah
and
now joe singh siddu had a stiff neck so
he said
i am unfit for this game i won't be able
to play so immediate discussion was okay
who's going to open the innings
and i kept thinking that if i could go
out and
go after the bowlers play some big shots
i would i would actually have a huge
impact
on the result of the game and i know i
can do it because deep inside i was so
confident
i said please one chance i know i can go
out and do it
so they agreed
because i said that i will never come
back to you if i fail i'll never come
back to you again how important do you
think it was for you to step up
in that moment when i started my career
i was batting at six occasionally at
even at seven number
and then
i started from 1992 world cup i started
batting at number four
and and
till 94 i was batting at number four
so
so i said i know i can do it
and it it changed me as a player as well
so when you go and you play against the
leading fast bowlers in the world up
front if i do well then that takes me to
the next level as far as a batter is
concerned so a very very important step
in my life uh in terms of what comes to
mind uh 2011 world cup
we had a camp
before the world cup and we discussed
number of things uh
how are we going to
meet expectations
and along with expectations there will
be pressure so how do we deal with
pressure
so we came up with the solution that
we need to direct
the the force of pressure the direction
we want to
head towards and that is how we need to
think that billion plus people are with
us
they are not on top of our heads because
the pressure was on you unlike anything
before but because this was this was
all of us all of us yeah and and i knew
that that was my last world cup
i knew that that was my last world cup
in india
a big moment for for all of us and
you know what better than lifting a
trophy
in india itself the 2003 world cup game
against pakistan
yeah i mean before that game i was not
able to sleep for
for quite a few nights the morning of
the match as we got close to the stadium
we could see that there were fans on
both sides of the road
one side you had pakistan
fans and one side you had indian fans
the flags
and you could see you could feel that
atmosphere was different to any other
game that
we had played
once we got there you know
the best feeling is when you stand on
the ground pre-match and you
sing the national anthem the game
started they bat it first
uh set a big target for us so sehwag was
telling me that why don't you play the
first paul
and i kept telling him normally having a
slightly superstitious also i always
preferred playing number two position
not number one
so
so savage kept telling me you play the
first ball this is a big game you play
and then i walked and i
faced the first ball
uh so
so that that was something that i
remember going up to the pressure after
that you know we started really doing
well
and i could i could actually see the
body language i could see them they were
demoralized and
there was a panic in the other tent
and i told savage that
this is working
you know and
obviously india pakistan match a big
game and then i i felt
possibly one of the
better innings that i've played on that
day