Quotes from Anil Kumble

Getting 20 wickets in test cricket will win you matches and that will be the focus.

Everyone in India wants the team to beat Pakistan, just as everyone in Pakistan wants their team to succeed. It's one match where the result matters, not really how you play.

If it was a very senior team you can sit back and strategize. But for a young team you need be in the middle.

But yes, I'm going to miss being a part of the team, sharing a dressing room, playing a test match, all those kinds of things.

As a bowler you are not a hero, you are always backing a hero but you need 20 wickets to win a Test match.

No matter what, I was always looking for a wicket. Whether I was bowling to restrict or bowling to get wickets, at the back of my mind, I always had the thought that I wanted the wicket.

All these years I have spent bowling have helped me understand the game better.

At the end of the day, the bowlers have to get 20 wickets to win a Test match. I'm sure they do have a little bit of brains to get those wickets.

There were many batsmen who were very difficult to bowl at. Brian Lara was probably at the top.

Having been with the Indian team for such a long time and having had various experiences of not just conditions, but outside the cricket field, when you're a coach, you're not just coach on the field but also off it. You're trying to build personalities, trying to build leaders.

An Indian captain is a friend, guide, philosopher to the players under him.

You need the other team to be feeling the heat when they walk on to face you and that only comes from their being wary straight off of your dominance on the field of play.

When I was a player I used to feel that you are the captain of your own bowling, which I would like to try and inculcate, especially in the bowling group. That is important. All of them must believe that they are leaders.

I'll ensure that I go out there and enjoy my cricket and enjoy being captain of India.

I feel the only way you feel the pressure is when you think it is an important match or series. If you feel that every time you go out into the middle the match is important then pressure ceases to exit.

I need to make one thing clear, the IIndian way of playing cricket is loved around the world. People love to watch an Indian batsman, because he is different from say an Australian one. That is why we are special, we play with our own kind of flair, our own style, and we shouldn't change that.

In India you pick teams based on pitches, so it's the bowlers who get changed. if it is a turning pitch a fast bowler can't play, and if it is a green pitch, a spinner can't play.

It is a cliche to say that you need to take 20 wickets to win a Test and it is the bowlers who get you the 20 wickets.

Captains realise over a period that if they plan right and understand the strengths and weaknesses of the opposition, luck attaches itself to their side.

I think it's a great challenge for a bowler to be captain of India and it is not looked at very positively in India for some strange reasons.

Yes, you'll try and set up a batsman and get him to play a few shots. It's just that you are always trying to play a mental game with the batsmen and as long as you are doing that consistently throughout the day and keep asking questions you are bound to be successful.

When I first played, I had the belief that I could go out there and win matches but when people saw me first I don't they had the belief. I had to be able to be able to prove, to tell them you can count on me.

I have always believed that the first Test of a series is very crucial.

As a coach I need to organise preparations for the team and give informed input to captain and the team to strategise better, inclusive of every player.