Mount Maunganui: Basking in the glory of a rare 5-0 whitewash on foreign soil, KL Rahul said the Indian dressing room has no junior-senior divide since they are driven by the common goal of winning together.
This is only the third instance when India have clean-swept the opponents in away T20 series and the first time in a five-match rubber. India had blanked the West Indies 3-0 in 2019 and beat Australia 3-0 in 2016.
“Playing with each other we are enjoying a lot for the last 2-3 years and we help each other out. There is no senior-junior divide in the dressing room, we have a common goal and that is to win together for the country and the team,” Rahul said at the post match press conference.
“Travelling away and winning a series 5-0 doesn’t happen too often. So the next couple of days we will enjoy that, put our feet up and relax. Obviously we have the confidence going into the ODIs, we have been doing well for the past couple of years. Recent form for 3-4 months has been great too, personally as well as a team we have been doing well,” added Rahul.
Rahul, who played a key role in India’s emphatic series win with 224 runs in five matches, said they have their eyes trained on the T20 World Cup in Australia.
“Winning the T20 World Cup is currently in our minds and our heads, and we are planning and playing according to that. We want to see how well we can prepare for that,” Rahul stated.
Rahul, who led the side in fifth T20, said he didn’t have to do much despite missing senior figures.
“Every day I wake up and every day I have been thrown into the game, I am very grateful and loving the challenges that are being thrown at me. Enjoying my cricket and was great to see how we responded without our leaders when both Virat (Kohli) and Rohit (Sharma) weren’t on the park,” pointed out the newly-transformed wicketkeeper-batsman. “The way we performed, I might have been the captain but the way all of them were involved, everyone knew what to do.”
India will next play three ODIs against New Zealand beginning February 5 and Rahul said they will follow the same process to achieve success in the 50-over format.
“Once we start with the next series, the process will remain the same. We want to win the game every time we go out. The kind of cricket we are playing is fun to watch and we hope to keep repeating this,” the makeshift skipper signed off.
Agencies