We were put under pressure at various times, but I think a couple of individual brilliances kept us in the game: Rahul Dravid

India won the second Test in Visakhapatnam by 106 runs on Monday, February 5, to level the five-match series against England. After losing the first Test by 28 runs, it was important for India to restore parity in the series as a 0-2 deficit could have been very difficult to overturn.

India’s head coach Rahul Dravid said that two remarkable individual performances kept the hosts in the game in the first couple of days. Yashasvi Jaiswal scored a maiden double-century in the first innings before Jasprit Bumrah bagged a six-for. Later, in India’s second innings, Shubman Gill proved his doubters wrong and bounced back to form with a gritty century.

“We were put under pressure at various times, but I think a couple of individual brilliances kept us in the game in the first couple of days,” he said at the post-match press conference on Monday.

“Yashasvi’s brilliant innings, 209 in that first innings. And then Bumrah’s spell really on the first two days kept us, or got us ahead by 140 [runs]. And then, we needed a bit more of a team performance over the next days three and four to get us over the line. So, yeah, quite pleased considering, going behind in the last Test match and then losing a few players. Happy we were able to bounce back, but we recognise it’s gonna be a fantastic series and it’s gonna be some tough cricket played over the next three games.”

Dravid noted that even after getting a handsome 143-run first-innings lead, India couldn’t dictate terms in the second innings, as they kept losing wickets at regular intervals barring a couple of good partnerships.

“I don’t think there was any stage in the game where we felt we could actually force the play. As soon as we thought we could force the play with our 80-run partnership [with Iyer and Gill], we lost a couple of wickets. Then we settled in and got another partnership. If we had got to tea at 250 for 4 instead of 230 for 6, we were 210 for 4 I think, and you just start getting comfortable and then you lose a couple of wickets and you’re thinking, ‘oh’. So I don’t think we were in any position at any stage in this game to ever think about putting pressure back on the opposition,” Dravid said.

“So I think more than that [forcing the play], I think after we lost the first couple of wickets, we soaked the pressure really well to get that partnership, but we couldn’t just capitalise on it enough. And then the same thing happened when we got another 80-partnership [between Gill and Axar Patel]. If we had made that 120 or 130, then I’m sure we would have thought about it differently,” he added.

I will honestly say that I think we left a few runs on the board in both innings: Rahul Dravid

Dravid felt that India should have scored more runs than they did in both innings of the Vizag Test. He said that after Yashasvi scored a double ton in the first innings, his team should have got to a score of 450 or 475 but they could only manage 396. However, Dravid reckoned that the younger batters would learn from their experiences and understand better when to attack or defend.

“If you want people to play with a little bit of intent and play a little bit positively, then you’re gonna have to accept a few mistakes. And at times, you know, people may not be able to convert some of the starts, but for us, for me, it’s not so much about, it’s just about reading the game and the game situation. I think it’s about understanding are we making the right decisions when to put the pressure, or are we recognising that this is a moment where we need to soak in the pressure a little bit and maybe maybe be a little bit more conservative rather than attack all out?” Dravid stated.

“I do feel that we did leave runs on the board here again. I think that’s, again, maybe a function of the fact that we do have a lot of young batsmen coming through who are I think still figuring out Test cricket a little bit. But you don’t have a lot of time, you know, to figure out Test cricket. I will honestly say that I think we left a few runs on the board in both innings. you know, in both innings I felt we could have got, certainly in the first innings here, 396 I thought was under par. You win a toss. We have one guy with a double-hundred, you should be pushing 450, 475 in these conditions,” the former India captain said.

The 51-year-old also claimed that the Indian team management does not ask for rank-turners and the players play according to the nature of the surface that greets them.

“Curators make the pitches. We don’t ask for rank turners. Obviously tracks in India will spin, how much they’ll spin, how less they’ll spin, I’m not an expert, you know. Sometimes I get told they’ll turn on the third day, they turn on the first day. Sometimes I get told they turn on the second day and they don’t turn till day four. So, you know, I am sometimes as clueless as anybody else. We look at the wicket and we try to do the best we can with what we get and we’ll go to Rajkot, we’ll see what we get and play with whatever we get in front of us,” Dravid concluded.