Rahul Dravid dissects India’s win in 2nd Test. India restored parity in the five-match series against England by winning the second Test in Vizag by 106 runs.
On Monday, February 5, India won the second Test at Visakhapatnam by 106 runs, tying the five-match series with England. After losing the first Test by 28 runs, India needed to restore parity in the series, as a 0-2 disadvantage would have been extremely tough to overcome.
India’s head coach, Rahul Dravid, stated that two outstanding individual efforts kept the hosts in the game for the first few days. Yashasvi Jaiswal got his first double-century in the first innings, and Jasprit Bumrah took six wickets. Shubman Gill later proved his naysayers wrong in India’s second innings, with a tough century to return to form.
“We were under pressure at times, but I believe a couple of individual brilliances kept us in the game in the first few days,” he remarked during the post-match press conference on Monday.
“Yashasvi batted brilliantly, scoring 209 runs in the first innings. And then Bumrah’s spell on the first two days kept us, or put us, ahead by 140 [runs]. Then, on days three and four, we required a little more teamwork to get over the finish line. So, yeah, I’m really delighted considering we fell behind in the last Test match and then lost a couple players. We’re happy we were able to recover, but we know it’s going to be a terrific series with some tough cricket over the next three games.
Dravid stated that despite a 143-run first-innings advantage
India was unable to dictate terms in the second innings, losing wickets at regular intervals with the exception of a few of strong partnerships.
“I don’t believe there was a point in the game when we thought we could genuinely force the play. We lost a couple of wickets just as we were about to force the play with our 80-run partnership [with Iyer and Gill]. We then settled in and formed another relationship. If we had gone to tea at 250 for 4 instead of 230 for 6, I believe we would have been 210 for 4. You just start getting comfortable till you lose a couple of wickets and go, ‘oh’. So I don’t think we were in any position at any point in the game to consider putting pressure on the opposition. ” Dravid stated.
“So, more than that [pushing the play], I believe that after losing the first couple of wickets. We soaked up the pressure extremely effectively to reach that partnership, but we couldn’t capitalise on it sufficiently. The same thing happened when we signed another 80-partnership [between Gill and Axar Patel]. “If we had made that 120 or 130, I’m sure we would have thought about it differently. ” He said.
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I will honestly say that I think we left a few runs on the board in both innings: Rahul Dravid
Dravid believed India should have score more runs than they did in both innings of the Vizag Test. He stated that after Yashasvi scored a double ton in the first innings, his team should have scored 450 or 475 runs, but only managed 396. However, Dravid believed that the younger batters would benefit from their experiences and knew when to attack or defend better.
“If you want people to play with intent and positivity, you’ll have to accept a few blunders. Sometimes, you know, folks may be unable to convert some of the starts. But for us, for me, it’s simply about reading the game and the game circumstance. I believe it is about recognizing whether we are making the correct decisions about when to apply pressure. Whether we are recognising that this is a time when we should soak up the pressure a little bit and perhaps be a little more conservative rather than go all out. Dravid said.
“I do feel that we did leave runs on the board here again. I think that’s, again, maybe a function of the fact that we do have a lot of young batsmen coming through who are I think still figuring out Test cricket a little bit. But you don’t have a lot of time, you know, to figure out Test cricket. I will honestly say that I think we left a few runs on the board in both innings. you know, in both innings I felt we could have got, certainly in the first innings here, 396 I thought was under par. You win a toss. We have one guy with a double-hundred, you should be pushing 450, 475 in these conditions,” the former India captain said.
The 51-year-old further asserted that the Indian team administration does not want rank-turners
Curators make the pitches. We do not ask for rank turners. Obviously, tracks in India will spin; how much or how little they will spin, I am not an expert, you know. Sometimes I’m told they’ll turn on the third day, but they really turn on the first. Sometimes I’m told they turn on the second day, but they don’t turn until day four. So, you know, sometimes I’m as clueless as everyone else. We look at the wicket and try to do the best we can with what we have, and then we’ll go to Rajkot and play with whatever we have in front of us,” Dravid said.
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