AHMEDABAD, March 6: India’s supremely talented bench strength has made skipper Virat Kohli quite confident that the team will have a relatively smooth ride when the transition period dawns upon it in the next few years.
With the rise of several young players like Washington Sundar, Mohammed Siraj and the maverick Rishabh Pant, India have been on a roll both at home and abroad.
“Our bench strength is extremely strong and that’s a good sign for Indian cricket. When the transition happens, the standards won’t fall and Rishabh and Washy’s partnership showed exactly that in a crucial juncture of the match,” Kohli said at the post-match presentation.
After notching up victories in the second and third Tests respectively, India won the fourth match inside three days.
“We had to pick up our body language after the first game in Chennai,” Kohli said.
“Now we can accept that the World Test Championship final, which was a distraction in New Zealand in 2020, but now it’s a reality,” Kohli said.
Ashwin, who ended the series with 32 wickets and a century, was named man of the series and the spinner was delighted to qualify for the WTC final, adding that the win was a collective effort.
“The fact that we qualified for the WTC final is very important. The intensity was low after Chennai, despite the high in Australia. Every time there was a challenging time in the series, someone put their hand up, so this series win was right up there,” the veteran offie said.
Ashwin also lauded Rishabh Pant, saying it is unfair to compare the young wicketkeeper batsman to legends of the game.
“If you put a board on what Rishabh has gone through in the last year, it’s been a little unfair being compared to legends, and the way he’s come out of it and kept in this series has been excellent.
“Axar (Patel) is someone who came into replace Jaddu. He deserved all the praise and he was very accurate for someone playing his first series,” he added.
England skipper Joe Root conceded that his team was outplayed by the hosts in the series.
Root also defended England’s much-debated rotation policy, saying it is important to give players rest.
“It’s really important that we have to look after our players in terms of resting them, and we can’t keep playing them until they fall over. We need to look after them and rotate them as necessary.” (PTI)
