India head coach Rahul Dravid was happy man as team sealed a 372-run win over New Zealand at the Wankhede Stadium. But this wasn’t the case in Kanpur—venue for the first Test. India came very close, had the Kiwis on the mat; nonetheless, they couldn’t deliver the sucker punch. But not in Mumbai.
“Good to finish the Test series on a winning note, came very close in Kanpur, but couldn’t take that last wicket. Credit to the team, they have pulled themselves back from tough situations, and were a bit disappointed at not finishing it off in Kanpur. Good to see the boys step up and take their opportunities, we were missing a few seniors, but the youngsters have taken their chances,” Dravid said after the game ended.
The hosts took just 69 balls to wrap things up at Wankhede Stadium. Jayant Yadav led the pack with four wickets. Dravid said he is happy to see Jayant performing well as he is among those who don’t get to play much Test cricket.
“Jayant (Yadav) found it difficult yesterday, but came up well this morning. A lot of these guys don’t get the opportunity to play a lot (of Test cricket), but it’s nice to see them do well, especially the likes of Shreyas Iyer, Mayank Agarwal, Axar Patel and Jayant. That gives us a lot of choices opening up when the seniors do return.”
“We didn’t need to think about it (about a possible declaration), we had a lot of time and we knew we could bowl them out. Also, a lot of youngsters needed the chance to bat in challenging conditions - to play on red-soil wickets, with this kind of bounce, it’ll only help them grow as players, especially when they travel and play in different conditions. We knew we had enough time to bowl them out once again. It’s a good situation to be in (on team selection), we had some injuries in the lead-up to this game, that’s something which will challenge us.”
With the amount of cricket being played, he mentioned that the management needs to handle the workload of the boys well. “The boys are playing a lot of cricket, in different formats, and we need to ensure the work load on them. But everyone is challenging for places, that’s good to see with the amount of cricket coming up. But it is a good headache to have.”
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