Dravid not worried by Rahane's form

Indian head coach Rahul Dravid said he is not worried by the form of stand-in captain Ajinkya Rahane and remained coy over the possibility of dropping the Mumbai batter for in-form Shreyas Iyer following Monday's drawn first Test against New Zealand.

Rahane scored 35 and 4 at Kanpur which took his average to less than 20 from 12 Tests he played this year. Dravid was confident that Rahane can turn things around very soon.

 "I mean you don't get worried. Of course, you would like more runs from Ajinkya, he would like to score more runs," the Indian head coach said in the post-match press conference.

"He is a quality player and he has done well for India in the past. He is one of those guys who has quality and experience and it's matter of a game when he would like to turn it around and he knows that and we know that," the legendary batter backed one of his senior players.

Dravid said that the team management will take a decision on the playing XI for the second Test in Mumbai once regular skipper Virat Kohli joins the squad.

"Look, we haven't decided what will be our playing XI and it's too early. At least, today our focus was on this game and when we go to Mumbai, we will assess the conditions and check people's fitness. Virat Kohli will join us so we have to discuss with him also and then take a decision," he side-stepped the question.

Dravid also hailed debutant Shreyas Iyer who scored 105 and 65, saying the Mumbai batter always had the ability to do well in the longer format.

"It's great to see the young guys come through perform straightaway on debut and we saw that with one or two of the players in T20 as well and they made a good account of themselves," the coach said.

"A young kid doing well in 1st Test for India and it's not only a good reflection of that person (player) but also a good reflection of the system. Fact that we have been able to develop not just India A but also he has played for Mumbai, in club cricket," he looked at the broader picture.

India were on the brink of a big win on the fifth and final day after reducing New Zealand to 155/9 but Rachin Ravindra and Ajaz Patel resisted the final hour of the play to earn a draw for the visitors. Dravid felt that the pitch at Green Park was unresponsive on the final day as he lauded the efforts of the team.

"We showed great composure and fighting spirit and worked really hard in that final session. It was quite an unresponsive pitch on the fifth day and really good effort to have taken eight wickets after lunch, three in that session and five in last session.

"With a little bit of luck, it would have gone our way I think, guys really fought hard," Dravid said.

New Zealand skipper Kane Williamson hailed his team's efforts to survive the late onslaught by the Indian spinners as they go into the second Test at Mumbai with a chance to win the series.

"Naturally, both sides want to win and at the end of the day, it was a fantastic Test match. For us, it was trying to survive under a lot of pressure and against quality spin. We have seen some other surfaces that have gone in a couple of days. All in all, it was a great Test.

Williamson expressed his delight at the way the Green Park pitch played out differently over the course of the match.

"I suppose it's only in recent years that that we've seen these surfaces. I seem to remember coming here and my first tour and the surfaces did go five days, there were sort of large first innings totals."