Port of Spain: India’s vice-captain Ajinkya Rahane said on Wednesday that his side are fully geared up to dominate the fourth and the final Test against West Indies as the Virat Kohli-led side are looking forward to achieve their long-standing quest of becoming the number one Test side in the world.
While speaking ahead of the fourth Test at Queen’s Park Oval, Rahane called on his side to play positive cricket and dominate the last match in the same way as they did in the previous three games.
“Our goal is to play attacking cricket and dominate West Indies here because we have been playing good cricket and it is important to finish well on this tour. 3-0 will be very good and yes our long term goal is to be the number one team. Right now it is important to stay in the present moment. As Virat said, (we) play positive and want to express ourselves in the middle. That means we want to dominate here again like we did in the three Tests. It is important to be in that process regularly and think about achieving that No.1 as a team,” he said.
India took an unassailable 2-0 lead in the four-match Test series against the Caribbean side following a massive 243-run win in the third Test in St.Lucia. The visitors won the first Test by an innings and 92 runs while the second match ended in a draw.
The 28-year-old believes India have been performing really well as a team, saying that the strategies have been working fantastically for each and every individual against the opponents.
“As mentioned before, West Indies is a pretty dangerous team in their home. We played some good cricket and improved. Our bowling unit has been performing really well from the Sri Lanka tour and in India against South Africa. I think we have been playing some good cricket and credit goes to whole team, not only batsmen or bowlers, everyone. Even the management has been working really hard with the boys and our process and our strategies have been fantastic for each and every individual against our opponents. Rather than thinking about opponents we are really improved as a unit,” insisted Rahane.
Rahane was among the few batsmen who saw frequent shift in their batting order, especially after opener Rohit Sharma was included in the squad for the third Test.
Reflecting on the changes in his approach when such a situation arises, Rahane said he tries to visualize himself in different conditions every time he goes for batting.
“I do visualization before the game, a day before the game, and before that also, in the dressing room, before I go into bat. I always try and visualise myself in different situations. And actually that is what is helping me in the middle to bat at number five. And it is important to assess the conditions once you go in and play according to that. It is not necessary that, what you are thinking is going to happen in the field of play. But what you visualise most of the times, those things happens. I think visualization helps a lot and most of the times I speak with our coaches, Sanjay Bangar and Anil Kumble. So, I think that communication and visualization is really helping me batting at No.5,” he said.(ANI)