The room is a mess, strewn with clothes, bats, shoes, suitcases, whatever else. On the dressing-table are a couple of books. Wicketkeeping, by Bob Taylor, and another one called Coaching by the Test Stars, or something like that anyway. Deep Dasgupta knows he has work to do.

Dasgupta has been unarguably the most criticised Indian cricketer of his times. In the press, on the telly, on the streets: no person with the remotest interest in the game has spared him. After another miserable Test, at Guyana, Ravi Shastri said that the selectors just couldn't keep pulling wool over the country's eyes forever. Navjot Sidhu went about in his own way: "A marriage of compromise has to end in a divorce." Often, Dasgupta has been accused of being incapable of catching even a cold.

"It got to me," he says in a candid chat with Wisden.com. "I have never really been criticised before, for whatever team I've played for. Nobody's ever said a word about my keeping. Suddenly, you know, there is just so much of it. It does affect you. Big time.

"It's not only what the experts think. You go out on the streets and they say, 'You didn't go a great job today.' And I'm like, `I know that.'

"I stopped watching TV or reading the papers a long time back, as soon as my first series. I was told to not do that. But it reaches you anyway. I don't have to read the paper. Someone will come to me and say, `You know this guy said this about you'.

"I think too much now, way too much. I was more of an instinctive cricketer. Nowadays I've started thinking about it too much – how to do this, how to do that. I never used to do that."

Dasgupta does believe he has had his share of opportunities. "More than my fair share. Right now, I'm not looking at the England series or anything. What I'm looking at now is another chance. If I get one in this series, good. Let's see what happens. I'm not thinking about anything but the next Test I'm going to play for India."

He has been speaking to people about his keeping, but doesn't believe there is a serious technical problem. "I honestly don't think so. At the end of the day, you got to catch the ball. Ridley Jacobs, he looks very ordinary. But at the end of the day, he's a superb keeper. I worked two weeks with Rodney Marsh and he would have definitely spotted a technical problem.

"I know I can keep – much, much better than I am right now. I'll tell you what, if anyone has seen me keeping in domestic cricket this season, just ask them how many time the ball has popped out of the glove. Against Gujarat, there was an important stumping down the leg. I was very happy about that. In the Duleep Trophy I took two blinders. I think the whole of this season I dropped just one catch – off Bangar – that too was in front of first slip." But it just hasn't clicked for Dasgupta in international cricket.

Maybe it is because of thinking too much. His batting has flourished because "Maybe I'm not thinking about scoring runs. I was actually very astonished to see my temperament. In the Ranji Trophy, I play my shots. I used to get to the thirties then get out to a rash shot."

Dealing with this pressure was new for Dasgupta. He had always considered cricket as a nine-to-five job. "I try not to stay in cricket in the evenings. Watch a movie, or listen to music, or go out or something. You have people who sort of live cricket. I'm not one of those people. I need to get out of the whole cricket thing.

"At the end of the day, cricket is part of life. It isn't life - as in life."

His parents, both huge cricket fans, have been very supportive. "Cricket not only drives my life, it drives their lives too. They make you feel good in the sense that they keep reminding you that you've done at least something ... I have a Test hundred, man." At last, there's a smile.

Rahul Bhattacharya is a staff writer with Wisden.com in India. His reports will appear here throughout the Test series.

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