File photo of India’s head coach Rahul Dravid.
Rahul Dravid never believed in “moving the boat” and certainly is not going to change his template of giving the longest rope. Cheteshwar Pujara And Ajinkya Rahane Even if the wait for Hanuma Vihari for regular occasions becomes a bit long.
It has never been easy in terms of opportunities for Vihari, the ‘tough run man’ of Indian cricket as he has played only one of his 13 Test matches at home and was the captain. Virat KohliThe back spasm and Shreyas Iyer’s stomach worm opened the door for another chance.
The Hyderabad player scored an unbeaten 40 in the second innings and set a target of 240 runs for the Proteas for India.
“First of all I must say that Vihari actually played in both the innings. He had a bad first innings and unfortunately for him, it popped up and the fielder just grabbed his fingers and got a really good catch, He batted beautifully in the second innings. Innings and it gives us confidence that you know,” Dravid praised Vihari.
He also took the opportunity to praise Shreyas Iyer, another strong middle-order contender.
“Shreyas (Iyer) obviously did it two or three Tests ago and he has clearly done that and he should take heart from the fact that whenever he gets the opportunity, he is doing well and hopefully that their time will come.”
But that doesn’t mean he will be preferred over Rahane or Pujara in this set-up with Kohli returning in the next game, Dravid made it clear.
In fact, without taking names, he cited instances during his playing days when the middle order was packed and people like Kohli, Pujara and Rahane had to wait a year or two before becoming regulars in the Test team.
“If you look at some of our guys who are now senior players and are considered senior players, they have also had to wait their time and score a lot of runs early in their career.
Dravid has a transition and a phased plan but as everything has its opportune time, that too will have to wait.
“So it is as the nature of the game (wait),” he said, “We can take a lot of heart from the way Vihari batted in this game and that should give him a lot of confidence and It gave us a lot of confidence.”
Siraj doubtful for Cape Town Test
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Dravid confirmed that pacer Mohammad Siraj has not recovered from a hamstring injury sustained during the second Test and it cannot be said with certainty that he will be available for the final match starting January 11 in Cape Town.
“Siraj is not fully fit and we need to go ahead and check his fitness status. In the next 4 days, can he be fit and will be doing physio scan.”
“As far as Hanuma Vihari’s on-field hit is concerned, I am not in a position to tell the extent of the injury as I have not had a detailed conversation with the physio.”
Siraj’s injury created a problem neither here nor there while defending the target which was 240.
“Losing Siraj (was a factor) because he wasn’t 100 per cent in the first innings,” said Dravid, while appreciating the pacer for bowling his heart out even when he was injured.
“We had a fifth bowler and we couldn’t use it as much as we wanted to in that first innings and that affected our strategy.”
Used Ashwin in the afternoon on the fourth day to take advantage of the “dry ball”.
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Starting the proceedings on the fourth afternoon with Ravichandran Ashwin drew much criticism but the head coach defended the decision.
“I think we saw the ball spin for Ashwin on the third day and we wanted to bring him into action till the ball dries up and see if he gets some spin in the first few overs.
“The ball got wet (due to the outfield being wet), it was difficult for a spinner to come into play. He (Ashwin) bowled a really good spell on the third day. The gamble was to try and give him the dry ball,” the coach said. explained.
Not having a practice game is no excuse
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Dravid, who had already talked about how batsmen should capitalize on crucial moments, did not agree that not having practice matches could be an excuse.
“We prepared as much as we could in these covid conditions and the fact that we didn’t have a three-day game, … there’s really no excuse other than the fact that we played well in the first Test and SA gave us that. beat the game.”
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