How do you reflect on your and the team’s recent showings?

I am happy with my performance. I am feeling good about how I am bowling in ODI cricket. The format is constantly evolving, so you have to keep adding things to your game. I am happy that I was able to deliver in the West Indies ODI series with Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Shami and Mohammed Siraj not around. As a team, we have had some ups and down in the recent past. The WTC final loss wasn’t easy to take. It keeps playing on our mind because we know our next chance will take another two years. Winning an ICC tournament is very important for us. It’s an opportunity lost. You keep that in your subconscious. Maybe, next time.

Are you confident of making the World Cup squad with the stiff competition for places?

I am a confident guy. If I make it to the team, I will be the happiest person. Everyone wants to lift the World Cup. Right now, we have some time off to train hard. I have started preparing already.

Tell us about the team's preparations for the World Cup...

Everybody is on their individual preparations. We have been given a fitness schedule and will have a camp in NCA before the Asia Cup. If you look at the overall preparations, it’s been going on for months. All the ODI series we have played, whether it was against Bangladesh, New Zealand, Australia, West Indies, people have had it in the back of their mind that 'it’s a World Cup year'.

People call you the man with the golden arm. But luck can only get you so far. Talk to us about how you think wickets?

I always think about wickets whether it is the first over or the last. I believe that wickets are game-changing. I may concede a four but if I can get a wicket, it can make it easier for other bowlers. So, everyone has a certain role to play in a team. Right now, I am looked at as a bowler who will go after wickets.

You have moved from being predominantly a swing bowler to someone who became craftier...

At this level, you are being studied all the time. You have to keep adding to your skills. I started as an outswing bowler. Now I have developed the ball which comes back into the right-hander. I use the cross-seam delivery which sometimes even I don’t know where it would go after pitching. That’s a natural variation. I just try to land it in the right spot. But wickets after all are results. They can vary. It holds true for batters, the greatest of batters as well. There was a time Virat Kohli wasn’t scoring hundreds and now he is. It was just a phase.

You use the knuckle ball effectively. When do you use it?

The knuckle ball is one of my go-to variations when I want to fox the batsmen. The first time I used it was in IPL 2017 but I had been practicing it in the nets for Mumbai for two years. It’s one of those variations, if you are confident and can execute at will, it’s a great delivery to have. It’s how you disguise it. When I bowl the knuckle ball, I hide the ball. But that doesn’t mean every time I am hiding the ball, it’s going to be a knuckle ball. It could be another kind of slower ball or the bouncer, a length ball…it could be anything.

You straightaway made impressive contributions lower down the order in Tests. Now, you have started to chip in with useful contributions in limited-overs games as well. What is the change?

I am not someone who has played 50 ODIs and 50 T20Is. Even in the last IPL, I didn’t bat much. With more opportunities, you will see me deliver more and more with the bat. My bowling has helped my batting. I can guess what a bowler is likely to bowl. My confidence comes from the effort that I put in to bring my A-game to the table. I prepare hard. With the ball too, whether I am asked to be the third seamer or a frontline seamer, I am ready for it.

How do you look at ODIs in modern-day cricket?

It’s a format in-between Tests and T20s, but the intensity it demands is almost the same as T20 cricket. It’s a constant challenge to get into a zone for 100 overs. After T20s came in, ODIs have become quite tricky. In 80 percent of the games that I have played, 300-plus scores have been scored. That’s the biggest change I have seen in ODI cricket from where it was. Also, it’s not easy to play ODI games back-to-back. You need time to rest and recover. Sometimes, we have to play every alternate day, even with travel involved. I am happy that in the World Cup schedule, there are enough rest days.