Ahmedabad, Nov 6: There are few players you just can’t keep out of the action. When Harbhajan Singh came in to bat on Day 2 of the Ahmedabad Test, the Indian team was witnessing a middle-order collapse. But the maverick cricketer had other plans.

Harbhajan smashed 69 off 97 deliveries and helped India reach 487. After the day’s play the offie spoke about his batting, the Motera track and coach Gary Kirsten.

Excerpts from the interview.

On enjoying his batting

Yes, I enjoyed it but it would have been nice if I had got another 20-30 runs.

On the first innings target

Yes, definitely we wanted to get 500 and that was the message from the dressing room. But in the end I was in [two minds] – [as to] whether [I should] take singles off the last ball of [every] over or not. I was just confused. When Pragyan [Ojha] was batting with me, I knew my plan - when to go after the bowling and when to defend. I knew till then what I was doing.

On when he started taking his batting seriously

I think that game in Sydney where I scored 66. Sachin [Tendulkar] and I scored some 150 runs between us for the seventh wicket or eighth wicket. From that very day I have taken my batting very seriously. I thought when I could get runs in Australia, then why not in India or anywhere else? Whenever you play against Australia there is plenty of motivation. Yes, it is always special to get runs against Australia.

On the Motera track

Yeah, it is a bit slow and looks like it will spin from tomorrow onwards but it will not be a big spinning track. I am sure that there will be something for the spinner.

On sweating it out in the nets

Well for the last three days or so I have spent a good 45 minutes in the nets. Gary [Kirsten] has been kind to throw a lot of balls at me. He has been tired of throwing balls at all the batsmen but it has been nice of him to give me a lot of batting and that paid off today.

On whether he can develop all-round abilities like Kapil Dev and Ravi Shastri

I don’t know whether I can match these two big guys [Kapil Dev and Ravi Shastri]. If I can achieve half of what they have achieved in batting, I will be happy with that. I have been working on my batting and hopefully I will be able to contribute more with the bat.

On Daniel Vettori and the key to bowling on the Motera wicket

You have to have men in catching positions on this kind of wicket. It is a slower kind of wicket and you have to toss it up and try and make the batsmen play through the covers. Vettori bowled really slowly in the air and I think that was the key. The batsman keeps guessing if you keep on mixing the pace and I think Vettori bowled beautifully today.