Stand-in India captain KL Rahul praised Shreyas Iyer and Ravichandran Ashwin after the star duo’s dogged 71-run stand for the eighth wicket came to India’s rescue as the visitors fought back from a hopeless situation to win the second and final Test by three wickets and clinch the series 2-0 on Sunday.
Bangladesh were on course for their first-ever Test win against their formidable neighbours when Iyer (29 not out off 46 balls) and Ashwin (42 not out off 62 balls) denied them with an unbeaten 71-run stand on 105 balls.
“You just trust the guys in the middle. There’s always belief but there were nerves, we are human. But we trusted the batters out. Today, Ashwin and Shreyas did it with ease and style,” KL Rahul told broadcasters in the post-match presentation ceremony.
“Well done to them for earning India the win. We never thought it’d be a cakewalk, thought we need to grind and work hard for runs which Bangladesh did. It was tougher with the new ball. We lost more wickets than we’d have liked.
Rahul further said that he was pretty happy with India’s bowling depth after the 2-0 series win over Bangladesh in the Mirpur match.
“The series wins say a lot about how well we’ve groomed our pace attack. Ashwin and Axar have also done really well. Umesh put his hands up, Jaydev came in after a long time but bowled phenomenally well and probably deserved more wickets than he got. But the pressure helped Ashwin and Axar capitalise,” Rahul added.
