IND vs AUS 2023: We were put under extreme pressure and we managed to respond – Rahul Dravid on positives in the series

Indian head coach Rahul Dravid was delighted after the team won the Border-Gavaskar series by 2-1. The fourth Test match was drawn at the Narendra Modi Stadium, Ahmedabad on Monday.

Dravid was happy with the fact that the team bounced back whenever they had their backs against the wall in the series. As India won the series by 2-1 and New Zealand won the first Test against Sri Lanka by two wickets, the Rohit Sharma-led team qualified for the World Test Championship final.

India was under pressure in the Delhi Test match when Axar Patel and Ravichandran Ashwin bailed the team out of jail with a fine alliance. Furthermore, there were a lot of positives for the home team and they were able to grab their chances.

Rahul Dravid said on Star Sports after the fourth Test match, “It was a hard fought series. There were moments where we were put under extreme pressure and we managed to respond. Rohit led the way with a hundred in the first Test, capped off by the big one by Virat here. In the middle we had Jadeja, Axar, Shubman, who probably missed a few. We needed to find people to respond and we found that. To be able to compete and get the better of them is a proud achievement.”

On the other hand, Shubman Gill was able to grab his opportunity at the top of the order. Gill scored a magnum opus knock of 128 runs in the final Test and continued his purple patch at the top level. The youngster had also scored a truckload of runs in the limited-overs series against New Zealand and Sri Lanka.

Dravid showered praise on Gill, “It’s been an exciting 4-5 months for Shubman. Exciting to see a young player coming in and maturing. Great sign for us, long may it continue. Lovely kid, works hard on his skill. Great exposure for him to learn from the likes of Virat, Rohit, Steve Smith. We did have an eye on the New Zealand-Sri Lanka game. It was lunchtime for us, so were following.”

Meanwhile, Australia’s young spin duo of Todd Murphy and Matthew Kuhnemann was able to impress in the series. Murphy took 11 wickets in three Test matches whereas Kuhnemann scalped eight wickets in two matches.

The Indian head coach was all praise for the youngsters, “They (Aussie spinners) have been exceptional, led by Nathan Lyon. He has been brilliant for Australia for many years but right through the series he was exceptional, the kind of pressure and control he gave Cummins and Smith was outstanding. Both young spinners (Kuhnemann and Murphy) gave him that kind of support. Lot of times we have seen overseas teams have only one good spinner and the others leak runs, but credit to the two young spinners, they maintained that pressure and picked wickets. A lot of the guys were saying that for the quality of spin they had to play which made the series win all the more sweeter. Some of the guys were saying since Panesar and Swann, they have probably not played over the last decade, a couple of spinners of this kind of quality or this quality of spells, they have played individual spinners who have been great over the years but to have a quality spin attack I think it is the best in the last 10 years.”

India and Australia will now take on each other in the WTC final on June 7 at the Oval.