Rahul Dravid while speaking during the post-match presentation after India's win in the Mumbai Test
Virat Kohli's India won the Mumbai Test against New Zealand by an emphatic margin of 372 runs to go 1-0 against the Kiwis and seal the Test series. Post India's resounding victory in Mumbai, team India's head coach Rahul Dravid acknowledged that the win against the BlackCaps hasn't been a cakewalk. Dravid highlighted how the hosts struggled to take the final wicket in the Kanpur Test and missed the victory by the narrowest of the margins.
"Good to finish the Test series on a winning note, came very close in Kanpur, but couldn't take that last wicket. Credit to the team, they have pulled themselves back from tough situations, and were a bit disappointed at not finishing it off in Kanpur," said Dravid during the post-match presentation.
Besides, the 48-year old hailed the Indian players' efforts for having performed well especially when a few senior players were not in the team.
"Good to see the boys step up and take their opportunities, we were missing a few seniors, but the youngsters have taken their chances. Jayant (Yadav) found it difficult yesterday but came up well this morning. A lot of these guys don't get the opportunity to play a lot (of Test cricket), but it's nice to see them do well, especially the likes of Shreyas Iyer, Mayank Agarwal, Axar Patel and Jayant. That gives us a lot of choices opening up when the seniors do return," added team India's head coach.
Pouring his thoughts on India's strategy in the Mumbai Test when the hosts had quite some runs in the bag, Dravid said, "We didn't need to think about it (about a possible declaration), we had a lot of time and we knew we could bowl them out. Also, a lot of youngsters needed the chance to bat in challenging conditions - to play on red-soil wickets, with this kind of bounce, it'll only help them grow as players, especially when they travel and play in different conditions. We knew we had enough time to bowl them out once again. It's a good situation to be in (on team selection), we had some injuries in the lead-up to this game, that's something which will challenge us."
"The boys are playing a lot of cricket, in different formats, and we need to ensure the workload on them. But everyone is challenging for places, that's good to see with the amount of cricket coming up. But it is a good headache to have," Dravid signed off mentioning his thoughts on the players' workload management.
