Nottingham, July 29: Replacing injured pacer Zaheer Khan in India’s playing eleven, maverick bowler S Sreesanth claimed three wickets on the first day of the Trent Bridge Test. The pacer, known to generate swing, was in his element exploiting the conditions to trouble batsmen.

In an interaction with the media at the end of day’s play, the Kerala bowler spoke about his return to the Test side.

Excerpts:

On being back in the playing eleven

[It’s] good to be back on the field and playing with the team so I had fun.

On his bowling

Wasim bhai [Wasim Akram] actually came in the morning and had a couple of words with me so that really helped. [It’s] thanks to him [that I did well].

On how he was feeling physically given that he was playing under these conditions after a long time

[I am] playing after six to seven months; we have got a good recovery session so hopefully I should be fine for tomorrow and day after. I am looking forward to bowling in the second innings. I was lucky enough to [play] a Warwickshire county match and that really helped. [So] I was very confident about the game here.

On whether there was still something in the wicket for the seamers

I think so.

On whether the Trent Bridge wicket had more movement in it than the one in Durban

More movement [would have been] in Durban and here it was gripping hard much more. [In] Durban we had more bounce but I think [there is] a bit more pace in here. It doesn’t really matter; I love to run in and bowl really fast so let’s see how it goes.

On needing to spend more time on the ground considering it’s after a break

Hopefully I will get in there. I have been working on [my] fitness at [the] Cricket Academy and [my] last international game was [in the] IPL. So from there to come back here it always feels good. The full team was supporting me and even the management. I had [a] couple of very good net sessions even yesterday and the day before so hopefully I will continue.

On what he had learned from the day’s play

Every day you learn. One thing I learnt today was, it’s better off bowling up and with my angle I was much too straight; if I could come a bit wider and just work around the angle, I think it would be much easier. Luckily, even Munaf Patel from outside [the squad] used to come and give me lots of tips so that helped. Even Sachin paaji [Sachin Tendulkar] was helping; everybody was helping in the team so that really helped.

On the reason behind bowling a full length through the day except for when Stuart Broad and Graeme Swann were batting

I tried a couple of bouncers but then I got back and just wanted to get them driving and get them out. Yeah, I made a couple of mistakes; I should learn from that.

On MS Dhoni

He is always cool and he is always calm and he is always helpful. [For] the Matthew Prior wicket, I should thank him because I went to him and took the ball from him; so [it’s] thanks to him.