Whangarei: Stand-in captain Rohit Sharma said, on Monday, that the Indian team got “what they wanted” before going into the first Test against New Zealand at the Eden Park in Auckland, starting February 6.
“We got what we wanted from this practice game. All the batsmen got in and made some runs which is a good sign before a Test series. We are ready and both the batsmen and the bowlers got what they wanted from this match. I am happy with how things went in the last two days,” Rohit, who scored a half-century along with Ajinkya Rahane said at the post-match press conference.
Apart from Rohit and Rahane, Ambati Rayudu (49 not out) and Ravichandran Ashwin also got some useful batting practice.
Test specialist Cheteshwar Pujara scored 33 runs while Ashwin also had a good time with the ball, taking two for 46.
Among the bowlers, Ishant Sharma (2/58), Zaheer Khan (1/42) and Umesh Yadav (1/70) were also among the wickets, but the most impressive bowler was unheralded Ishwar Pandey with figures of 3/42.
Rohit had words of praise for young Pandey.
“Pandey bowled really well. Given the conditions, he stuck to his plans and he got rewarded with three wickets. All the other three fast bowlers also did well. They did not get the wickets they wanted, but Pandey was the one who got really stuck there,” said Rohit.
Rohit defended yet another poor show by Shikhar Dhawan (26) and Murali Vijay (19).
“I won’t say it is disappointing that they didn’t bat longer. They had a decent outing in the middle. They got a feel. It is always disappointing to not get runs. It is not an issue,” said the stand-in skipper. (PTI)
