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Left-arm spinner Axar Patel proved his worth with ball and bat. He took a five-for in the first innings of the first Test and batted with aplomb in India’s second innings of the second Test to help India set New Zealand a mammoth target.
Jayant Yadav took five wickets in second Test, including a four-wicket haul in first innings.
Dravid said it will be a mistake to read the Test series win as a lop-sided result in India’s favour.
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”Great to see the boys stepping up and taking their opportunities. Yes, we were missing a few senior players. Credit to the guys who came in, Jayant had a difficult day yesterday, but learnt from it today. ”Mayank, Shreyas, Siraj, who doesn’t get a lot of opportunities. Axar, great to see his development with the bat in addition to what he can do with the ball. It gives us a lot of options as well, helps us become a stronger side.” India did not enforce a follow-on on the visitors despite bowling them out for a paltry 62 in the first innings and Dravid defended the decision.
”We knew we had a lot of time, didn’t think much of the follow-on, also a lot of young batters in the side, so wanted to give them a chance to bat in conditions like these. ”Knew we may be in such situations in the future where we may have to force pace in tough conditions. So it was a great opportunity and the luxury of time to be able to do it. Was great to help in the development of our players,” he said.
Dravid said a huge challenge before him will be to keep his players physically and mentally fresh for future assignments.
”It’s a good situation to be in, we’ve had injuries in the lead-up, so we need to manage our players physically and mentally, it’s going to be a large part of my challenge, challenge too for the selectors and the leadership group,” he said.