I can't compare myself to Tendulkar, because he has already played and done with his 25 years of international career and scored 100 hundreds.

First six overs are important because if you put runs on board, it will take the pressure off the other batsmen.

It was a dream come true to meet GR Viswanath sir, who is a legend in the game.

I am a person who likes to be in the present.

It is all about experience. When you are 7-8 years old, you start playing school cricket and score runs; my coaches, from school level to Rahul Dravid Sir now, all those small, small things - the experiences make a difference.

Just in a matter of eight months to win the U-19 World Cup as captain and then make the Test team is quite unreal.

My dad doesn't know that much about cricket, but he has watched so many years of cricket.

I earlier used to stay in Virar, and I was coached by Santosh Pingulkar.

When I came to Under-19, I played a lot of cricket and got a lot of experience. Then India A as well, and Ranji Trophy - it just keeps going on.

I don't think it matters too much if you are batting or bowling first on this pitch. The wicket remains the same throughout the 40 overs. There is only the dew factor that probably comes in the second innings.

I made tons of runs and got an opportunity to play for Mumbai. Suddenly, people knew who I was, and the cameras were on me. Getting the recognition matters when you are playing school cricket.

I was a bit nervous when I first entered the Indian dressing room. Some of the players sitting out there had 10 years of experience and were sitting in front of me. But then Virat Kohli and Ravi Shastri told me that there are no seniors or juniors in the team. So I could open up to them easily and irritate them with my questions.

I never thought of making my India debut right after the U-19 win. I took it match by match.

I began playing at the age of six, but at that point, I had little idea of cricket; forget the talent part. It's around the age of 10-11, when more people around me began talking of my skills, that I felt maybe I could go on to do something.

It was my wish to play in the challenging conditions in Australia. I love the bounce there.

A hundred for Mumbai feels good, and it doesn't get bigger than MCA for me because they are the people who have helped me get to where I have.

I am not a person who will think about the past.

I like Arijit Singh and often listen to his tracks.

During the 2011 World Cup, I was sitting at the Wankhede Stadium when India won.

I like to play attacking shots, even if it is in the first over of the game. If I get out playing attacking shots, then so be it.

I am very happy and proud - I played a lot of school cricket and scored heavily there, and then the Ranji Trophy, but when we represent India, it's a different feeling.

Whatever games came my way, I tried to give my best, do whatever I could to win matches for the team, be it at the Ranji Trophy level, India A, IPL: this was always on my mind.

School cricket is where we all start. The journey of a cricketer starts from there, and it was the same for me.

Tendulkar is my idol in cricket, and one thing I try to pick up from him is how he carries himself in a humble manner.

As a captain, I just want to lead the team properly.

I don't want to bring in negative vibes in my career.

I have been an aggressive batsman since my school days, and I play my game as such.

Each player wants to perform in every match he plays. Sometimes it happens; sometimes it doesn't. If I am not able to perform in a given match, I leave that behind.

Every cricketer dreams of coming into the Indian side.

Whenever you play international cricket, there is always a challenge.

To represent your country is the ultimate honour, and to play Test cricket for India will be the ultimate fulfilment of my cricketing ambition.

Once you graduate from the Under-19 level, no one really gives you technical advice. It is all about making mental adjustments.

Cricket came about for me when my dad started throwing plastic balls to me at home. I was four or five.

When the time comes to play Irani Cup, if I get the chance, I will make sure I will do my best.

If you look at any Mumbai guy, he starts to handle pressure at a very young age. Starts at the school level, then the pressure from parents, from the coaches.

I am an attacking batsman, but I've learned a lot about patience. There are clever bowlers who can pick your weak points, so I have to be a bit patient, play out a spell or two.

The biggest difference at the Ranji Trophy level is that of the pace you face. You don't get as many quick bowlers at the Under-19 level.

In the move The Last Emperor, the young child anointed as the last emperor of China lives a magical life of luxury with a thousand eunuch servants at his command. "What happens when you do wrong?" his brother asks. "When I do wrong, someone else is punished," the boy emperor replies. To demonstrate, he breaks a jar, and one of the servants is beaten. In Christian theology, Jesus reversed that ancient pattern: when the servants erred, the King was punished. Grace is free only because the giver himself has borned the cost.

C. S. Lewis observed that almost all crimes of Christian history have come about when religion is confused with politics. Politics, which always runs by the rules of ungrace, allures us to trade away grace for power, a temptation the church has often been unable to resist.

For me, prayer is not so much me setting out a shopping list of requests for God to consider as it is a way of keeping company with God.

The things, good Lord, that we pray for, give us the grace to labour for', as Sir Thomas More expressed it. The inner voice of prayer expresses itself naturally in action, just as the inner voice of my brain guides all my bodily actions.

prayer, and only prayer, restores my vision to one that more resembles God's. i awake from blindness to see that wealth lurks as a terrible danger, not a goal worth striving for; that value depends not on race or status but on the image of God every person bears; that no amount of effort to improve physical beauty has much relevance for the world beyond.

...to see that God does answer, in great things as well as small, the prayers of those who put their trust in Him will strengthen the faith of multitudes.

Only in prayer can we learn to love God with all our heart, mind and soul.

Prayer unfolds in the stillness of the soul.

Prayer is - not just bowing your head a few times a day, it pervades all of life.

Prayer enters the pool of God's love and widens outward.

God formed an alliance based on the world as it is, full of flaws, whereas prayer calls God to account for the world as it should be.

Prayer is a place where God and humans meet.

Thanks to the scientific method, most people in "developed" countries have an outlook of mild deism. We assume things like weather and disease operate according to fixed natural laws. Every so often, though, problems impinge on us so directly that we stretch beyond that mildly deistic stance and ask God to intervene. When a drought drags on too long, we pray for rain. When a young mother gets a diagnosis of cervical cancer, we solicit prayers for her healing. We beseech God as if trying to talk God into something God otherwise might not want to do.