It was a shame we couldn't learn from game to game: Kane Williamson

Team India, driven by the guileful bowling performance by Ravichandran Ashwin, notched up a huge 321 runs win over New Zealand in the 3rd Test at the Holkar Stadium, Indore and whitewashed the opposition, pocketing the series 3-0. It was ace spinner Ravi Ashwin who was the helm of the affairs yet again as he ran through the Kiwi batting line up with his career best bowling figure of 7/59, bundling out Kane Williamson & Co. inside one session during their quest of chasing 475 runs.

Virat Kohli was obviously delighted as he walked in to speak with Ravi Shastri. He says that team is full of confidence and ready to face the challenges. He felt the all his men gave their hundred percent in the series and no individual contribution stood out while not forgetting to leave Ashwin aside in the comparison.

Virat Kohli said: “Couldn’t have asked for anything better. The bowlers have responded well whenever we have been under pressure. Everytime, the Kiwis have had a partnership, someone has put their hand up. In the past, this team had failed to show character. This team is up and ready for it. We are pretty intense and the results show. We surely have to work hard against better oppositions. It was pretty simple. Yesterday itself the bowlers deserved to be in this position, so the plan for the batsmen was to go out there and express themselves. It was really good to see that.”

“This has been a proper team series win. There has not been a contributor standing out as such, leaving Ash aside. He is not to be mentioned in the XI. As a team, we have contributed at different times. Jadeja with the bat in the first game, Saha with the bat in the second and Rohit with those crucial knocks. It has been a complete performance. We don’t have to remind him (Ashwin). We keep check number five, number six (referring to Man of the Series awards). He has been a champion. It is a topic of discussion. Credit to him and hope he keeps going well.”

It has been a disappointing Test series for the Black Caps. Kane Williamson, too, couldn’t live up to his reputation with the bat. Speaking at the post-match conference, the skipper admitted that they did not perform to their standards and India outplayed them in all aspects of the game. He also went on to state that inability to learn from the mistakes was one big reason behind their failure.

Kane Williamson said: “I think that’s fair. We knew it was going to be tough coming into the series. We certainly wanted to show better cricket than we did. Credit to India they were better in all three departments. In this match, there are many areas we didn’t to do too well like I said India outplayed us. It was important to go big in the first innings, but, unfortunately, we didn’t. Credit to India, they are number one in the world and it is well deserved. The beauty of it is, we have such young side and being exposed in these conditions to the best attack in the world. It was a shame we couldn’t learn from game to game. As a young group coming here, although it is unfortunate we couldn’t perform as we would have liked to, but credit to India.”

There were no doubts over the fact that Ravichandran Ashwin will be picking up yet another Man of the match and Man of the Series. The off-spinner raked up 27 wickets in 3 Tests including 13/140 in this game. He looked mighty confident and said that that wicket wasn’t easy to bowl and thanked his bowling mates for their support. He also gave a special mention to the Indore crowd who turned up in huge numbers to witness the match on all four days.

Ravichandran Ashwin said: “First things first, I would like to thank the Indore crowd for coming out and supporting us. It was a wicket where you had to work hard to pick wickets. We had to change up the pace and that is because I had to get them to drive as the ball was carrying to short leg or leg slip. Special mention I have to give to Bhuvi, Shami, and Umesh. They contributed whenever we were not able to get the wickets. Virat told me that he is rotating the bowlers. I have been bowling really well and my confident is sky high.”