'Imran Was Desperate To Win The Series'

Obviously, he was talented. He wanted to play cricket at all times of theday, night or evening. I still remember he used to call our teammates to playwith a tennis ball in the dressing room when there was an interval during thecourse of the match. Such was his interest. He was a little upset after scoringjust 15 in the first innings at Karachi. We all tried to tell him not to thinkabout it too much. I also remember that his brother, Ajit, flew to Sialkot, toboost his confidence. He got a 50-plus score in that particular match in thesecond innings. Thereafter he became a regular member of the side. We realisedthen that his head was on a strong shoulder.

I remember that I told him not to worry at all. I used to visit his roomalmost every evening to talk to him. He was keen to do well, something heexpressed in every discussion during that tour.

Of course. Pakistan was the better side. With Wasim Akram and captain ImranKhan, Waqar Younis also made his debut in the series; they had a terrific fastbowling line up. They also had a magic spinner in Abdul Qadir. Still we drew theseries. I know Imran tried his level best to beat us. They had some grass on thewicket in the last Test; even then we had a higher first innings score. Pleasedon't forget that we didn't have Dilip Vengsarkar in the team. If you go throughthe scorecard, we had a very young side.

Sanjay Manjrekar. It was a one-man show. He stood like a rock. The Pakistanipacers applied everything to get his wicket, but Sanjay kept his cool and battedmagnificently.

No, Kapil was supportive and super cooperative. Manoj Prabhakar bowled like achampion on that particular tour, I must say. Manoj was a fighter who didn'tlike to give up at any stage of the game and particularly troubled Javed Miandad.Javed could not pick him properly. I had a similar problem against Wasim Akram.

Yes, but he was not in the best of form in the first part of the series. Istill remember he was not in the first XI for the Karachi Test. He came in placeof the injured Raman Lamba at the last minute before the Test match. Iunderstand Zaheer Abbas gave him a few tips as far as his grip was concerned.Azhar, afterwards, became a much more attacking batsman.

Imran was desperate to win the series. I knew that. It was evident from hisbody language right from the moment he came out to toss at Karachi. I'lldefinitely cherish those four Test matches with Imran as the opponent captain.We have a nice relationship since then.