da realbet： India captain says he expects his team to get even “more intense and precise in what we do in the next outing”
da pinnacle： ESPNcricinfo staff16-Aug-20213:29
Laxman: This win on par with the Brisbane win for India
On the win: ‘We had the belief that we could get them out in those 60 overs’
“Super proud of the whole team, the way we stuck to our plans in this Test match after being put in. Our performance with the bat was outstanding. The pitch didn’t offer much [to the bowlers] in the first three days to be honest. I think the first day was most challenging [for the batters], after that it was quite difficult for the bowlers to gain anything from the track but I think the way we played in the second innings, after being put under pressure this morning, Jasprit and Shami, was absolutely outstanding.”We thought 60 overs to go, we could have a crack at the result, and we had the belief that we could get them out in those 60 overs. I think the bowlers were just outstanding and what happened in our second innings, right at the end with the bowlers, a bit of tension on the field [and needle between the teams] really helped us and really motivated us to finish this game.”On lower order’s contribution with bat: ‘They have that desire in them to do the job’
Just to applaud what Jasprit and Shami did… It takes a lot of character and heart to play under those circumstances as bowlers who don’t get much to bat, and just putting their hand up for the team when we needed it most, it was something that we were really proud of and we want to let them know. They were charged up and both took the new ball and got us two breakthroughs as well, which were very crucial for us.”When we were our most successful in Test cricket for a year and a half, our lower order was contributing big time and that’s something that we went away from a little bit when we play away from home. So that was one of our focuses, the batting coach has really worked hard with the boys and they are putting in the hard work. Most importantly when they walk out to bat, they believe that they can stay there and give some runs for the team. I think that belief was missing [before]; we were practising but now they have that desire in them to do the job for the team and we know how priceless those runs are and that proved to be the case even today as well.”Comparing this victory to the 2014 Lord’s win: ‘What happened on the field really charged us up’
“I was part of the winning Test match last time when I was a player under MS [Dhoni]. That was pretty special as well, Ishant bowled an outstanding spell. In that game, we put them under pressure on day four itself.”But this one, to get a result in 60 overs, when we all thought let’s just have a crack at what we have in front of us… It’s quite special and especially when someone like Siraj is playing for the first time at Lord’s and bowling the way he did, [it] was outstanding. As I said, what happened on the field [the verbals] really charged us up and gave us that extra motivation to finish the game off.”On the timing of the declaration: ‘I thought anything under 55 doesn’t sound right’
“It was more a case of ‘what’s the number of overs we are comfortable with’. I thought anything under 55 doesn’t sound right, I don’t want to walk off the field later thinking ‘what if we had four or five more overs left with us’. We decided, okay, 60 is our mark, and we are going to have a crack at them in 60 overs but, as I said, the crucial breakthroughs with the ball were the right start for us and we carried on from there.”We have three more games to go, our aim is five Test matches. We are not going to sit on our laurels after this match and just take it easy. If at all, we going to get more intense and more precise in what we do in the next three games.”
