India captain Shubman Gill brushed aside his poor luck at the toss, saying he could not have asked for a better all-round performance from his team after they hammered the West Indies by an innings and 140 runs to take a 1-0 lead in the two-match series.
Vice-captain Ravindra Jadeja, India’s most valuable player in red ball cricket, displayed his all-round skills, hitting an unbeaten hundred and taking a four wicket haul in the opening Test.
“Six [toss] losses in a row, but as long as we keep winning the matches, it doesn’t matter. Honestly, this was the perfect game for us. Three centuries, and we fielded really well so no complaints,” Gill said during the presentation ceremony. Gill felt the wicket was perfect for batting and lauded the centurions of the team for their efforts.
“Whenever you get a start, I think it was a pretty good wicket to bat on and we both got starts but couldn’t convert, but we are happy for the centurions.”
We have to bat better: Chase
West Indies skipper Roston Chase was visibly disappointed with their performance, especially with the bat after winning the toss. “Obviously when you win the toss and bat and get bowled out for 162, it’s going to be tough to come back from that and it’s not the kind of performance we were looking forward to.
“We have to bat better, especially in India you have to put up a big first innings total on the board with the ball spinning and pitch deteriorating as the game goes on,” Chase said. He, however, backed his decision to bat first after winning the toss.
Meanwhile, Man-of-the-match Ravindra Jadeja said his efforts to work on his batting is paying rich dividends. “I’ve been working hard on my batting. We had two months off, there was no Test or ODI cricket so I was working on my fitness and went to the CoE [Centre of Excellence] in Bengaluru to work on my fitness and batting. I’ve been batting at No. 9, 8 until few years ago but now I have my number at 6, so I can prepare myself and pace my innings,” he said.
Jadeja happy with pitch
The left-arm spinner was also pleased with his performance with the ball. “As a spinner you get more turn and bounce [on red soil pitches] so I was happy when we got to know that it’s a red soil pitch, for batting and bowling,” Jadeja said.
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