AGENCY
Indore: New Zealand skipper Kane Williamson today said that his team did not have a mental block while facing Ravichandran Ashwin but crumbled under off-spinner’s quality bowling during 0-3 Test series whitewash against India.
“Not a mental block, more quality of his bowling in these conditions (pitch) which turn a lot. Sure spinners enjoy that and Ashwin is best at exploiting those conditions, and shown that for a long time. He has shown his class, deserved to be man of series,” said Williamson after India won the third and final Test here by a whopping 321 runs to blank New Zealand 3-0 in the three-Test series.
Ravichandran Ashwin grabbed 10-wicket hauls in the first and third Test and ended up with 27 scalps in the series. And Williamson admitted that his young team learnt a lot while playing in these conditions and facing world’s top spinners.
“From our perspective a positive was to come over here against two of best spinners in world on these surfaces and get exposed. When you get in that position, although it is frustrating, you do learn a lot. That’s the beauty of international game. “The more you can play in these conditions, the better you will be. People talk a lot about county cricket, you are far more aware of what to expect, this is no different so that would be helpful,” he said.
The captain admitted that India managed to put up a better show as a unit during the series.
“They exploited the conditions better than us, very patient with bat. Batting was not easy when our time came.
(India won) not just because conditions had deteriorated but the very good bowling attack they have,” Williamson said.
“India are a very good side and had shown that. Some brief moments we were able to put them under pressure but not for long enough. They showed their class to null any pressure that we were able to put on them and put it back on us.
“Unfortunately we couldn’t put together complete performance. Not lack of effort, but India were the better side and we need to learn a lot form them as a young side is getting exposed to these conditions,” he explained.
Terming the performance of his team in the Test series as “very disappointing”, Williamson said, “Going into the match, we wanted to put together more complete performance, wasn’t the case. Once again some fighting contributions with bat, boys tried really hard in field on wicket not offering much initially.”
Williamson also rued losing all three tosses in the rubber.
“Winning the toss would have been helpful, that’s a challenge in itself. India were far superior in this series, but it depends on the surfaces. It was important to spend time at the crease, creating pressure batting first if possible.
This India side a very good and they know these conditions better,” Williamson insisted.
“From batting unit, always want contributions that go towards match-winning performances. We didn’t have any of those. Some good signs with bat at times but the way Virat (Kohli) and Ajinkya (Rahane) showed in this game. Those are contributions that go long way to winning games,” he added. 26-year-old said he was looking forward to the five-match ODI series, starting at Dharamsala on October 16. “There will be a bit of scarring coming out of a 3-0 Test defeat, (but) nice to have new personnel come in who are fresh. It’s another format. We are looking forward to it,” concluded the captain.
