The Board of Control for Cricket in India announced the squad for the upcoming World Test Championship final in England. The selectors named a full-length squad of 20 players other than naming standby players as well as net bowlers. The standbys will wait in the wings if any unfortunate incident occurs on the field. Abhimanyu Easwaran looked delighted after being picked as a standby and hoped to learn few things from Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma.

Speaking to ANI, Easwaran expressed his delight and said “Really excited and really delighted about the selection. For me, it will be more important to learn as much as I can and picking cue from other players who are really experienced and have been performing at the highest level for a long time. I guess it is just about becoming a better player when I come back.”

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When asked about his experience of being in the standbys when England came to India, Easwaran said: “I think the intensity of Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli at practice was amazing to watch. Everybody’s preparations were very specific on what they needed to do in the game. That was really important learning and they were very precise on what they wanted from the practice. I think that was good learning for me.

“There were few interactions about the preparation and how specific they were, the intensity at practice. These learnings were very important for me and how clear they were about the game plans they would have the next day. As we saw after the second Test, the wickets were turning quite a bit so I saw they were pretty clear in terms of the game plan and to see them do exactly that on the next day in the ground was pretty amazing,” he further added.

Ranji Trophy didn’t take place this year due to the Covid-19 situation in the country. Easwaran believes it will be difficult to adjust to red-ball cricket. He quoted;

“I guess it was more about playing white-ball cricket because we did not have red-ball cricket this year. When I was with the Indian team and a week before that also, I started working on my red-ball game and for the past 10-12 days, I have been working on the long format. It is about bringing that discipline back.

“In ODI cricket, you tend to attack a bit more and there are balls in ODIs which you attack which probably would leave in Test cricket, it is about having that balance and just being disciplined about my batting.”

The Bengal batsman had an amazing season in 2018-19 when he scored 861 runs but his form dipped in the following season. Despite his tally of 258 runs in the following season selectors kept faith in him.

“That was a really important phase in my career, when you do not score runs, it gets difficult and there can be negative thoughts. It is about believing in yourself and trusting your process and hard work that you have been doing for so many years. These phases give you the experience, I just take it one game at a time, I do not think about the result, if I can keep my process right, it gives me the best chance to score runs,” said Easwaran.

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While shedding lights on the challenges of the bio-bubble environment, he mentioned, “It is a part of life now. A week’s quarantine first, you stay inside your rooms, you are not allowed to go out, sometimes that helps you also. Anyway, there is a lot of cricket going on so you get a week to yourself and you can relax and you can train inside your rooms.

“After a week, you get to meet your teammates, you are allowed to go to the team room. That is not such a big issue but not being able to go out, that’s difficult, but it is a part of life now, so we have to adjust,” he said while concluding.