JOIN USGraeme Swann reached his 200th Test wicket on Saturday when he dismissed Harbhajan Singh, and the English off-spinner was naturally delighted after achieving the feat.
Excerpts from his media interaction:
On reaching 200 Test wickets: It was only a dream. Five years ago, I never even thought about it. I’m absolutely over the moon the way my career has panned out. It’s changed at the top just at the right time for me, and it’s been a great four years.
On Cheteshwar Pujara: He’s been the stand out performer for India so far. He uses his feet very well and plays each ball on its merits. It’s nice to finally dismiss him. It doesn’t usually take us three innings of a Test series innings to get anyone out, now that we have done it, hopefully, we have a finger on it. He doesn’t hit the ball in the air and uses his feet well.
On Monty Panesar’s show: I think Monty bowled magnificently. I love playing with Monty. I grew up in Northampton where he first started. I loved the way he reacted after the Tendulkar dismissal. I never saw him so animated.
On Alastair Cook: The new Don Bradman. Cooky is Cooky. I mean I said it before the Test series, his batting could blossom with the captaincy responsibility as it did in the ODIs. We will be a very lucky team if this goes on. So far he’s been magnificent in the three innings. At the top of the order, he’s got such a calm head on his shoulders.
On the partnership between Cook and KP: You don’t want to see, especially in the first innings on a pitch that the spinners are dominating a team being 30 for 4 or 30 for 3. It sends shockwaves to the change room. Conversely, when batsmen are batting well in the middle, it does have a calming influence in the dressing room.
On the difference between Mumbai and Motera: The bounce makes it a lot better to bowl on this than the one last week in Motera. Last week, it brought the left-armer into the game a little more as the ball was keeping low. With the bounce, there won’t be so many lbws, may be it evens things out a little bit because we are used to wickets that have more bounce. We are in a good position, but I wouldn’t say we are in a strong position.