JOHANNESBURG, Jan 7: Rahul Dravid never believed in “rocking the boat” and is certainly not going to change his template of giving the longest rope possible to Cheteshwar Pujara and Ajinkya Rahane even if Hanuma Vihari’s wait for regular chances gets a tad longer.
Vihari, Indian cricket’s ‘Tough Runs Man’ has never had it easy in terms of chances as he has played only one of his 13 Tests at home and it was skipper Virat Kohli’s back spasms and Shreyas Iyer’s stomach bug that opened the door for another chance.
The Hyderabad man did his bit in the second innings with an unbeaten 40 in India’s target of 240 for the Proteas.
“Firstly I must say Vihari played really 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, he batted beautifully in the second innings and that gives us confidence you know,” Dravid was effusive in his praise for Vihari.
He also took the opportunity to praise Shreyas Iyer, another strong middle-order contender.
“Shreyas (Iyer) obviously done that two or three Test matches ago and he has obviously done that and they have just got to take heart from the fact that whenever they are getting opportunities, they are doing well and hopefully their time would come.”
But that doesn’t mean that 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 it pretty clear.
In fact, without naming, he cited examples during his playing days when the middle-order was jam-packed and 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 now senior players and being sort of considered, senior players, they have also had to wait for their time and also have had to score a lot of runs at the start of their careers.”
Dravid does have a transition and phase-out plan but like everything has its own opportune time, this will also have to wait.
“So it happens (wait) as its nature of the sport,” he said adding, “We can take a lot of heart from the manner Vihari batted in this game and that should give him a lot of confidence and that should give us a lot of confidence.”
Siraj doubtful for Cape Town Test
Dravid confirmed that fast bowler Mohammed Siraj hasn’t recovered from the hamstring injury sustained during the second Test and it can’t be said with certainty that he will be available for the final game starting in Cape Town from January 11.
“Siraj is not fully fit and we need to check going forward what is his fitness status. In the next 4 days, whether he can get fit and physio will be doing scans,” Dravid said.
Siraj’s injury did pose a problem while defending a neither here nor there kind of target which 240 was. (PTI)
