Abhimanyu Easwaran
The past few months in the Indian cricket has been a magical journey not just for the team, but also for many players. While many veterans and preferred first choice XI-ers were down with injury, the ones on the standby list were given a go and the unheralded players emerged as match winners, hence making the historic Australia Test double for India a memorable and an inspiring story. Motivated by those stories, Abhimanyu Easwaran, wants to be match ready and well prepared ahead of every Test duing the impending tour of England where he has been named among the standby players.
India will be playing two different Test contest in England come summer - the World Test Championship final against New Zealand starting June 18 and the five-match England Test series later in August - leaving Easwaran with six opportunities to make an impact.
"Yes, I am a standby player but as we have seen in the Australia series, anybody can be required at any given point in the tour. So my role will be to stay match ready and adapt to the English conditions and prepare myself likewise, keeping in mind that I might be required in the very next Test. And when I do get it, I will have to give my best," said the Bengal cricketer during his exclusive interview with India TV Cricket on Monday.
Mohammed Siraj, Washington Sundar, Axar Patel, who were all part of the waiting list for the star-studded Indian Test side, made a huge impact when opportunites befell their path and have now become an intergral part of the team. But Easwaran has been particulary inspired by T Natarajan, who will however miss this tour of England owing to an injury he incurred during IPL 2021.
"It motivates me a lot because I have played with all these players and hence know the amount of hard work they put into it. And to go there as a standby player, get a chance, and then emerge as the match-winning player is a very inspiring story. I was especially inspired by T Natarajan who had then not played in any of the formats for India," he added.
Talking about the WTC final, Easwaran did admit that New Zealand will have an advantage heading into the contest given that they will play England in a Test series prior to the final, but he opined that India will get ample time to acclimatise themselves to the conditions.
"New Zealand will definitely have the advantage because they will be heading into the contest on the back of a high-intensity Test series. But the Indian team will also get a lot of time to acclimatise to the conditions. We will reach there on June 2 and so will get about two weeks to prepare for the match. And we also have a lot of players in the squad who have previously toured England. So I believe both teams will be somewhat equally prepared for the final," he said.
