Family commitments meant I was unable to play for Jaipir from the start of the IPL but I'm joining them on May 15 and I'm looking forward to being part of the IPL at last.

I needed to give time to my family and my brother’s family. I had my first child on December 26 – my son Owais Khan – and so I have more family commitments now.

The Royals have been very understanding and I have been in touch with the management and Shane Warne about my plans and how the team is doing.

I will be joining the Rajasthan Royals on May 15 for the last two weeks of the tournament. My absence does not seem to have affected them too much in any case as they are top of the league and only four overseas players can play at any one time anyway.

It’s interesting how the Royals are doing because at the start everybody was saying that we were the weakest team. They said the same about Yorkshire when I was with them last year and we were leading the County Championship for three months before finishing mid-table.

Shane Warne is doing very well as captain and he has everything under control. I have been watching the matches on television and his captaincy has impressed me. He has played under good captains throughout his career and he has obviously learned a lot in the game.

Every game he seems so well prepared about the opposition batsmen – I suppose part of that is down to his instinct as well in noticing weaknesses in them in the match. That was what helped make him such a great bowler. He changes the bowlers and fielders very well and doesn’t let a situation drift, he’s always thinking ahead. Even when he opened with Mohammad Kaif in the second match he was big enough to bring him back down the order for the next game when that plan didn’t work.

Although we have played against each other quite a lot we haven’t spoken much but I have always had a lot of respect for him. When we played he always gave me respect too and that was an honour.

When Yorkshire played against Hampshire last year I scored a 100 and a 200 in the match against him and even when he scored all those runs he was never annoyed, he just shook hands with me and showed his respect.

It will be nice to see my Pakistan team-mates Kamran Akmal and Sohail Tanvir in the Royals team. I wasn’t surprised to see Tanvir take his 6-14 recently because he was the man of the tournament in the recent Pentangular Cup in Pakistan so he was the man on form. He is maturing well as a bowler.

Just a word on the Australia series that wasn’t: It was very sad that we weren’t able to play that series. Not only for the fans and everyone involved but for the fact that all our players were in very good form in domestic cricket and I believe we had a 50-50 chance of beating them. Although you might say we should be favourites at home we are talking about the world champions here and Australia so I think 50-50 shows the form our players were in.

I love Test cricket and I am worried about our lack of Test matches – we are in trouble as far as Tests go – but we will manage. We have good experienced players and there are some good youngsters coming through. For now we will have to make the most of our opportunities in one-day cricket. We go to Dhaka in June to play India and Bangladesh so at least Pakistan will be playing some cricket. 

While I have been unable to be with Jaipur I have still been able to find time for training, and a bit of relaxation.

I have been staying in Karachi, fishing by night and training by day - it’s a 24-hour job! Everybody knows how much I love my fishing. I have been catching Barramundi. But I also take my training very seriously and will be in good condition when I reach Jaipur. Let’s just hope I can bring a winners’ medal back to Pakistan.