Irfan Pathan talks to K Shriniwas Rao of the Indian Express about his time away the national squad and the lessons learnt from the experience.

A lot of things [changed]. I’ve come out stronger from everything that happened. Even at the worst of times, at the back of my mind I knew that things would change for the better. I felt I would soon make a good comeback, and that’s what happened eventually. But I’ve learnt a lot about myself in the process. Time can teach you a lot of things — be it cricket or your personal life. You come to know who your friends are and, interestingly, this is the phase when you realise that you don’t have too many friends.