Keep your feet on the ground and learn on the way forward — that’s the advice head coach Rahul Dravid had for his wards after Team India thumped New Zealand by 73 runs in the third and final T20I at Eden Gardens on Sunday for a 3-0 series win.
It was just the result India needed after the T20 World Cup debacle. It’s also a fine way to start for Dravid in his first assignment as full-time coach. “It was a really good series win. Everyone played well right through the series. It’s nice to start well, but we are realistic and we need to keep our feet on the ground,” Dravid said after the match.
“It’s also not easy for New Zealand to show up after a World Cup final and play three games in six days,” Dravid rightly pointed out. Praising youngsters for their impressive showing, Dravid also highlighted the need to develop on the skills going forward and the learning the players have had in this series.
“We gave opportunities to some guys who haven’t played a lot of cricket in the last few months. We’ve also had a good learning and going forward, we need to keep developing those skills.
“It’s really great to see that we’ve got options and can mix and match,” Dravid emphasised.
Fielding stood out
For captain Rohit Sharma, fielding was one of the “biggest” contributors behind India’s comfortable series win. “Fielding-wise, we’ve been brilliant in all the three games. When I go to the ground, my thinking as a captain is how many runs we are saving.
“In Jaipur and Ranchi, we saved 15 runs each and in this game, we effected two run-out dismissals,” Rohit said at the post-match media conference.
Heaping praise on how Ravichandran Ashwin made his comeback in white-ball cricket, Rohit also had a special mention for Axar Patel, who bamboozled the New Zealand batsmen on Sunday.
“Since he played in Dubai and till now, Ashwin has done a quality job. He’s always an attacking option for the captain and takes wickets in the middle phase, where you can put the brakes on the scoring rate. In other words, both Axar and Ashwin are wicket-taking options in the middle. When they bowl, it’s always about how they can get a batsman out or put him under pressure,” Rohit said.
