Colombo: Sachin Tendulkar on Friday expressed his desire to once again open the innings in One-day Internationals. "Personally speaking, I would like to open if I was given a chance. It's more comfortable (for me) as I have scored many runs batting in that position," Tendulkar told reporters. "If I open, the ball is new and the bowlers are new, and I will dictate terms, but now the terms are dictated to me," he said but added that he would contine to bat down the order to honour a team decision and was adapting to the new situation. Asked whether he provided more balance to the team bycoming in the middle-order, Tendulkar said other batsmen should also be given the credit for playing well. "If I bat lower down the order, it does not make someone else play better. He has to play well himself," he said. Tendulkar also refused to be dragged into persistent debates about his form. "I have nothing to prove. I don't want to prove anything to anyone about my game. I have never tried that," he said. "I am doing my job, which any cricketer wants to do." But he admitted that he had restrained himself a bit while batting and avoided the lofted shots. "I have cut them down a bit, may be because of experience. I am finding more options for scoring by cutting down the risk factor. I have to study the situation and adapt to it... see the behaviour of the wicket and bat accordingly," he said. Tendulkar did not agree with West Indian great Viv Richards who had reportedly said without him the Indian team would be weaker by 150 per cent. "Cricket is a team sport, though at times, individuals do matter," he said. On India's prospects in the next year's World Cup, Tendulkar said the team will have to be prepared with different strategies as he expected the tournament to be full of surprises. "This World Cup may be full of surprises and we have to be prepared for everything," he said. "No team wants to be predictable and allow other sides to work out their strategies. There should be different plans and we should choose horses for courses," he said. In an earlier interview to BBC Hindi, the master batsman said India was playing well enough to win the Champions Trophy and go on to lift the World Cup next year. "Every team feels that (way) and if you don't feel that way then you should not play," he said. "It doesn't happen overnight so we have been trying and we have been working out a few things. We have been very determined and focussed and that is our target," he said. "We have been playing good cricket and that's what we want to do. We just want to go out and stick to our basics and do the same things we have been doing for some time. It's a very good combination. Everybody is doing a good job," he said. Extras:
We have only ourselves to blame for defeat: Pollock
The key was we never gave up till the end: Ganguly