Insisting that Indians are not bad players of the short-ball, Test vice-captain Ajinkya Rahane on Wednesday said the team’s bad run in New Zealand was largely due to the wind factor.

Rahane, who had scores of 46, 29 (in Wellington) and 7, 9 (in Christchurch), said the criticism that they do not play short ball well, does not hold any merit.

“People are speaking too much about it (short balls). If you see Melbourne innings, we have dominated. We all play short balls well. One game doesn’t make you bad player of short ball. I don’t think we have to make too much fuss about short balls, we have been playing them really well in different formats,” Rahane told reporters here.

“They (NZ bowlers) used the breeze factor very well because in New Zealand it was biggest factor, cutting the angle and pace. We have to stay focused and positive and the next series is in Australia and there is a long way to go, looking forward to that.”

Rahane was referring to the 2018 Melbourne Test against Australia, which India won by 137 runs. Cheteshwar Pujara had scored a hundred, while Virat Kohli, Mayank Agarwal and Rohit Sharma had stuck half-centuries in the first innings.

“Personally if you see my Melbourne innings against Australia, I was counter attacking and played short ball wells. It is important to learn what went wrong playing short balls in New Zealand. As long as I am on that path to improve, if next time the opposition come and bowl short balls at me and if I feel like hitting it, I’ll hit,” he said.

“We have really done a good job in the last three-four years. Now Test Championship has started. In this journey, you are going to win and lose some matches,” he added.