Sachin Tendulkar today expressed his desire to once again open the innings in one-dayinternationals.
"Personally speaking, I would like to open if I was given a chance. It's more comfortable (for me) as I have scored manyruns batting in that position," Tendulkar told reporters here.
"If I open, the ball is new and the bowlers are new, and I will dictate terms, but now the terms are dictated to me,"he said but added that he would contine to bat down the order to honour a team decision and was adapting to the newsituation.
Asked whether he provided more balance to the team by coming in the middle-order, Tendulkar said other batsmenshould also be given the credit for playing well.
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"If I bat lower down the order, it does not make someone else play better. He has to play well himself," he said. Tendulkar also refused to be dragged into persistentdebates about his form.
"I have nothing to prove. I don't want to prove anything to anyone about my game. I have never tried that," he said. "I am doing my job, which any cricketer wants to do."
But he admitted that he had restrained himself a bit while batting and avoided the lofted shots.
"I have cut them down a bit, may be because of experience. I am finding more options for scoring by cuttingdown the risk factor. I have to study the situation and adapt to it... see the behaviour of the wicket and bat accordingly,"he said.
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Tendulkar did not agree with West Indian great Viv Richards who had reportedly said without him the Indian teamwould be weaker by 150 per cent. "Cricket is a team sport, though at times, individuals do matter," he said.
On India's prospects in the next year's World Cup, Tendulkar said the team will have to be prepared withdifferent strategies as he expected the tournament to be full of surprises.
"This World Cup may be full of surprises and we have to be prepared for everything," he said.
"No team wants to be predictable and allow other sides to work out their strategies. There should be different plans andwe should choose horses for courses," he said.
In an earlier interview to BBC Hindi, the master batsman said India was playing well enough to win the Champions Trophyand go on to lift the World Cup next year.
"Every team feels that (way) and if you don't feel that way then you should not play," he said.
"It doesn't happen overnight so we have been trying and we have been working out a few things. We have been verydetermined and focussed and that is our target," he said.
"We have been playing good cricket and that's what we want to do. We just want to go out and stick to our basics anddo the same things we have been doing for some time," he said.
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India are in a midst of one of their best winning sequences ever and have won 12 of their last 16 one-daymatches, some of them in thrilling nail-biting finishes.
"I think this is one of the best sides I have been part of," Tendulkar said. "It's a very good combination. Everybodyis doing a good job."
PTI
