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KP'S TAUGHT ME TONS.

Article Excerpt
WITH nine days to go until the Ashes, Ravi Bopara is worrying the Australians. England's No 3 has turned his stop-start career around and is aiming for his fourth successive Test century in Cardiff. Sportsmail's Nasser Hussain caught up with his old Essex team-mate to find out how he's preparing for the biggest test of his life and dealing with criticism from Shane Warne.

NASSER HUSSAIN: So how has your life changed since you scored three hundreds?

RAVI BOPARA: There are certainly more interviews to do. I get recognised a bit more but I try not to pay too much attention to that. I love my cricket and I want to carry on doing that, enjoy the success I'ves had and try to get a lot more of it.

NH: Do you enjoy the attention? You're a big name now.

RB: It's part of playing for England but I've got a long way to go. There are people I look at who have done so much in this game, like Graham Gooch and yourself, and I want to achieve things. I want to do something special.

NH: I enjoyed that side of you when I played with you here at Essex. That you wanted to be someone. Are you living the dream now?

RB: I don't feel as big as the hype that is going around. I feel as though I've still got to earn my place at No 3. There are people like Ian Bell still around and I've got a massive series against Australia to prove I really belong. If I do well against Australia, if I do what I did against West Indies, let's see how I feel about that. But at the moment, I haven't nailed...