Bhuvneshwar Kumar has recently revealed it was the head coach Rahul Dravid, who decided to promote the speedster Deepak Chahar to No.8 prior to him in the second ODI against Sri Lanka at the R Premadasa Stadium in Colombo. And, it is not unknown that Dravid’s call turned out to be a successful one as Chahar scored an unbeaten 69 off 82 balls and helped India win by three wickets.
Notably, with this victory on Tuesday, India sealed the three-match ODI series by taking a 2-0 lead also. However, Chahar and Bhuvneshwar added an 84-run stand – the third-highest for the 8th wicket in successful run-chases in the history of ODI cricket as well to chase down the 276-run target in 49.1 overs as well. Bhuvneshwar Kumar, who supported Chahar quite well with an unbeaten 19, said that Dravid knew Chahar’s batting ability and hence decided to promote him up in the batting order.
“…Our aim was to play till the last ball, last over, so we wanted to take it as deep as possible, so we can score runs. The only plan was to play till the last, and the way Deepak batted was amazing,” Bhuvneshwar Kumar said at the post-match virtual press conference.
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He continued: “Look, he has played under coach Rahul Dravid before in India A or some series and he had scored there as well. So, Dravid knew that he can bat and he can hit a few balls, so that was his Dravid’s call. And the way he batted, Chahar proved it right. We all know that he can bat, he has batted in Ranji Trophy many times, so it wasn’t a tough call but it is good to see the way he scored the runs.”
However, he also revealed that their plan was to play till the end of the 50 overs and they were focussing on each ball at a time.
“The only chat and plan was to play till the end. We never said to each other that from here on, we can win. Even when we needed 1 run (3 runs), we were taking one ball at a time. Deepak never let the run rate go above six,” Bhuvneshwar said. “He almost played risk-free shots, where he got few boundaries and brought the required rate to under six. At no stage did we think that we are going to win or lose. We were playing according to the situation and taking it ball by ball.”
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He also revealed how Rahul Dravid congratulated them after the win. Notably, this is the first time Dravid is coaching a senior time. Before that, he has successfully coached the U-19 and India A teams. Under his guidance, Prithvi Shaw led the India U-19 team won the World Cup as well.
“…you get under tension, especially when you are sitting outside, you know this generally happens. I didn’t see him much when I was batting, but when he came down, he just congratulated both of us and the entire team. He was very delighted, especially for the way we performed, when we were five-six down and then the way Deepak batted.”
However, Bhuvneshwar Kumar is happy with the way Deepak Chahar bowled. He returned with figures of 2 for 53 and he also used the knuckle-ball with utter perfection as well.
“Deepak has always been bowling knuckle balls. He has always had that and he is executing that well. And as far as my bowling is concerned, in both the matches, it has been batting friendly conditions and extremely hot. It becomes difficult for bowlers. I’m satisfied with the way I’ve bowled,” concluded the veteran pacer.
