I've played in Test matches before after injury without first playing a county game or warm-up of some sort.
I remember my first meeting with Alastair Cook clearly. The entire Lancashire side, some of them pretty mild-mannered, really laid into him. He'd just scored a double-hundred for Essex against Australia in a warm-up match before the 2005 Ashes. For some reason, we all assumed he must be really arrogant.
Test cricket tests your ability as a cricketer but also bring out your true character.
I am quite stingy when it comes to giving runs away.
You so often see bowlers pick out a lovely new ball from the bag at nets and it looks great when it swings in the air and nips off the seam with batsmen playing and missing. But you have to simulate match situations. What about when the ball is 60 overs old, the sun is blazing down, the pitch is flat and there's not a hint of movement?
The time to think about personal achievement is at the end of your career.
