Johannesburg: Rahul Dravid has never believed in ‘rocking the boat’. So he is certainly not going to change his template of giving the longest rope possible to Cheteshwar Pujara and Ajinkya Rahane. It definitely means Hanuma Vihari’s wait for regular chances in the Test playing XI gets a tad longer.
Vihari is known as Indian cricket’s ‘Tough Runs Man’. He has never had it easy in terms of chances as he has played only one of his 13 Tests at home. It was skipper Virat Kohli’s back spasms and Shreyas Iyer’s stomach bug that opened the door for another chance at the Wanderers.
The Hyderabad man did his bit in the second innings with an unbeaten 40 in India’s target of 240 for the Proteas.
“First I must say Vihari played really well in both innings. In first innings he got a nasty one and unfortunately for him, it popped up and fielder just got his finger tips to it and really got a good catch. In the second, he batted beautifully in the second innings. That certainly gives us confidence you know,” Dravid was effusive in his praise for Vihari.
Dravid also took the opportunity to praise Shreyas Iyer, another strong middle-order contender.
“Shreyas (Iyer) obviously done that two or three Test matches ago. They (Iyer and Vihari) have just got to take heart from the fact that whenever they are getting opportunities, they are doing well. Hopefully their time would come,” Dravid pointed out.
“But that doesn’t mean tIyer he will be preferred over and above a Rahane or a Pujara in this set-up with Kohli set to comeback in the next game,” Dravid made the options pretty clear.
In fact, without naming, Dravid cited examples during his playing days when the middle-order was jam-packed. Guys like Kohli, Pujara and Rahane had to wait for a year or two before being Test team regulars.
“If you look at some of our guys who are now senior players, they have also had to wait for their time. They also had to score a lot of runs at the start of their careers,” said the Indian head coach.
Dravid does have a transition and phase-out plan but like everything it has its own opportune time. So this will also have to wait.
“So it happens (wait) as its nature of the sport. Dravid said. We can take a lot of heart from the manner Vihari batted in this game. That should give him as well as us lot of confidence,” asserted Rahul Dravid.
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Dravid also confirmed that fast bowler Mohammed Siraj hasn’t recovered from the hamstring injury sustained during the second Test. So it can’t be said with certainty that he will be available for the final game starting January 11 in Cape Town.
“Siraj is not fully fit and we need to check going forward what is his fitness status. In the next four days, whether he can get fit and physio will be doing scans to monitor him,” Dravid informed.
“As far as Vihari’s on-field hit is concerned, I am not in a position to tell the extent of injury. I haven’t had a detailed chat with the physio,” Dravid added.
Siraj’s injury did pose a problem as India tried to defend a target of 240 was.
“Losing Siraj (was a factor) as he wasn’t 100 per cent in the first innings. We had the fifth bowler and we couldn’t use him as much as we would have liked in that first innings and it did affect our strategy,” pointed out Dravid.
Starting the fourth afternoon’s proceedings with Ravichandran Ashwin did draw a lot of flak. However, the head coach defended the decision.
“I guess we saw the ball spinning on third day for Ashwin. We wanted to get him into action till the ball was dry and see if he gets some spin in first few overs. As ball got wet (due to wet outfield), it was difficult for a spinner to get into the game. The gamble was to try and give him (Ashwin) the dry ball,” the coach explained.
