Rahul Dravid never believed in “moving the boat” and certainly isn’t going to change his template of giving the longest rope to Cheteshwar Pujara and Ajinkya Rahane, even if the wait is a little longer for Hanuma Vihari’s regular chances.
It has never been easier in terms of opportunities for Vihari, the ‘tough run man’ of Indian cricket as he has played only one of his 13 Tests at home and it was captain Virat Kohli’s back cramp and Shreyas Iyer’s stomach ache. It was the bug that 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 played really well in both the innings. He got a bad one in the 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 and that leads us to believe you know,” Dravid was impressive in his admiration for Vihari.
He also took the opportunity to praise Shreyas Iyer, another strong middle-order contender.
“Shreyas (Iyer) clearly 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 in the beginning of 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.”
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