Bengaluru, Feb 26: India captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni on Saturday said that pressure was like an ever-present shadow for any Indian cricketer, impossible to get rid of. He conceded that living with pressure was part and parcel of the life of a player representing the nation.

Talking about the availability of players the skipper said that everyone other than Ashish Nehra, who was 80 percent fit, was available for selection in the match against England.

In the competition developing between Yuvraj Singh, Virat Kohli and Suresh Raina for middle-order slots, Dhoni granted Singh had an edge thanks to his left-arm bowling.

Excerpts from a media interaction

On whether the role of captain of a host nation puts additional pressure on him

When you are part of the Indian cricket team and if you are the captain, it’s a job filled with extra responsibility. Pressure always comes when you start playing for your country. First you want to seal a permanent place and then be consistent. When you are part of the team, the pressure follows you like a shadow. You just have to look [at the] positives and give [it] your best.

There is one thing with the Indian cricket team. Since I made my debut in 2004, I have never played a series where we [have not been] under pressure, whether it might be winning the game easily or playing against tough opponents. Most of the guys are used to it, especially being part of the Indian Premier League, as you have to perform under pressure for the franchise. Pressure goes hand-in-hand with the Indian team.

On the injury update

I think Ashish Nehra will bowl with 80 percent intensity in the nets, a slightly longer session. Apart from that everybody is available for selection. On the importance of the match against England

What is important is for each and every game we prepare likewise - whether it’s Bangladesh or England or Australia. Because that is what I feel is important rather than giving that one game extra importance. It’s very important to have the same preparation level throughout the tournament. I think it’s a crucial game but at the same time the preparation level remains the same. On his thoughts about India being favourites against England

In every game you have to start from scratch, a fresh start, which means you have to do all the good things that you have done in the past. A lot has been talked about carrying the momentum but every game is different and you have to start well. We are not celebrating yet, that is for sure. Of course we had a good start in the opening game where we batted really well and after that the spinners did a good job in the middle overs. Again, I think it’s about the team that will start well and hold their nerve for a consistent period of time. May the best team win! On Kevin Pietersen

It is not about one individual. When you are preparing for a match, you have to strategies for the whole squad. At least you have to have plan for the eleven members. Of course there are players in each squad who can change course of the game. But I still feel it’s important to have a strategy for the whole team because it will be very tough if you are targeting one individual. As in any international team, most of the players are very talented. On the change in team strategy should rain come in to play

We will have to see what exactly the forecast is, what the percentage of rain is and how much the game will be affected. It’s tough to exactly forecast the weather as we saw in South Africa recently. There were 80 percent chances of rain there but not a drop fell and after that we had 20 percent chances of rain and it rained the whole day. So will have a look at the wicket and the conditions at the start of the game and accordingly we will plan. On the temptation of playing two spinners at Bengaluru

It’s a tough one because if you play just two seamers, your bowling becomes quite similar. Of course you have variations when it comes to the spin department but if you are playing three seamers and one spinner, then the part-timers can also do the job. Of course it’s a tempting and challenging decision to make. So let’s see and hopefully the best XI will get selected.

On the Bengaluru wicket

The wicket can definitely change a lot in two weeks’ time. A lot depends on how you prepare the wicket and how much rolling is done. Yesterday, when we were practicing, the wicket was still damp and they were still rolling, so I didn’t get a chance to see the wicket. As [far as] strategy is concerned, it depends on how the wicket looks before the start. On Suresh Raina and the middle-order

It is a tough one but one big positive is that all the batsmen are in good nick. Virat Kohli has been in tremendous form in the last few series. It will always be tough to pick one of the two as Yuvraj Singh has an edge [thanks to his] bowling left-arm spin and we desperately need that as we usually play with only four bowlers. I think it’s a difficult decision but what we need to see is once all three batsmen [Kohli, Raina and Yuvraj] start scoring, then it will be a fight for slots. Virat is ideally suited to bat as low as four. So it will be more a battle of slots than of individuals. On Sachin Tendulkar

When it comes to Sachin you always expect big things. As far as his practicing is concerned, he always does it in a different way. If he needs to put an extra effort then he really does that and he doesn’t leave the practice arena until he is happy with himself. As far as scoring big runs is concerned, he has been doing it for the last twenty years. On Virender Sehwag’s wish to bat the full innings quota of 50 overs

He has done that at times when we needed him to bat for more than 30 overs. But his most important role [is] to bat aggressively and give us a good start and momentum on which the middle order can capitalise. If he bats for 50 overs, I don’t have a problem with that but definitely the opposition will have problems.