Team India bounced back well with two consecutive wins after losing the first two games. While they could have changed the playing XI, they decided to play with the same team and won as well. Meanwhile, Avesh Khan, who struggled in the first three games, claimed 4 wickets and helped India win as well.
After the win, he gave the credit to head coach Rahul Dravid for that in his post-match press conference. “The team hasn’t changed over four games, so credit to Rahul (Dravid) sir. He gives chances to everybody and intends to give them a long enough run. He doesn’t drop a player after one or two bad performances because you cannot judge a player on the basis of one or two games. Everyone is getting enough matches to prove themselves,” Avesh said. “Yes, there was pressure on me. I had zero wickets in three games but Rahul sir and the team management gave me another opportunity today and I ended up picking four wickets. It’s also my papa’s birthday, so it’s a gift for him too.”
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Avesh Khan also revealed that he wasn’t trying to bowl off-pace on a track that “wasn’t easy” for the batting unit as well. Instead, he looked to hit the hard length, a decision he took after a mid-match discussion with Ishan Kishan.
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“Whenever we are batting first, I always end up asking the batters how the wicket played, whether it was two-paced or not. I spoke to Ishan (Kishan) today and he said that hard length balls aren’t easy to play; some are bouncing, some are stopping and the others are keeping low. Then I planned to attack the stumps and bowl the hard lengths consistently. It’s in my hands to bowl well, not pick wickets. The slower ball wasn’t very effective on today’s wicket, so I tried to bowl hard lengths with the occasional bouncer to change things up. Today’s wicket wasn’t easy for batters, it was two-paced although DK bhai, Hardik and Rishabh all played well. 170 was a very good total on this wicket and all we wanted to ensure was pick a couple of wickets in the powerplay,” Avesh Khan concluded.
