West Indies skipper Kraigg Brathwaite has advised his teammates to learn from Indian batsmen for their long hours of innings. India batted almost for 150 overs in the first innings to score 649 runs at a rate of 4 runs per over which is considered an above par pace to score in Test cricket.
It was a special victory for India as it came after a torturous defeat in England and also for the fact that India secured its biggest ever victory when accounted on the basis of runs. India won the match by an innings and 272 runs.
It was never going to be easy for Windies to come to India and defeat the hosts in their own den. As such, the result of the first Test surprised very few people.
Windies skipper confessed that they didn’t believe in their own defence during the match as much as they should have. It’s a matter of still staying positive in defence also and putting away the bad balls, as well as stroking the ball along the ground for singles.
Brathwaite, who has played 50 Test matches for West Indies and is captaining the side in the absence of regular skipper Jason Holder significant on trusting their defensive skills as a batsman which they failed to do in the first Test. West Indies were bowled out twice within a span of four sessions with the scores of 181 and 196.
He was amazed by Prithvi Shaw’s performance who reached his century in just 99 balls which called comparisons with Virendar Sehwag and a young Sachin Tendulkar. Though, he will have to keep up his momentum in tough tours in future. Also Rishab Pant played an excellent inning by adding 92 runs in just 84 balls which is another level of achievement to be appreciated in test cricket.
India play the West Indies in the 2nd and final match of the Test series from 12th October in Hyderabad. After that, both the teams will also lock horns in five-match ODI and three-match T20 series.
