Follow UsRachin Ravindra, who became only the first New Zealand batter after Ross Taylor in 2012 to score a Test century in India, was happy that he made his parents proud by scoring the century in their hometown.
Rachin’s parents, who hail from Bengaluru, migrated to Wellington, where their son was born and named after two Indian batting greats, Rahul Dravid and Sachin Tendulkar.
“It makes me happy that they [parents and family] can watch me play in their hometown. Dad and Mum would be very very proud seeing me play in a place where they grew up," Ravindra said at the end of Day 3 of the first Test in Bengaluru on October 18 (Friday).
"Like I always say, I am a Kiwi through and through, but it is nice to have the Indian heritage back here in Bengaluru."
Ravindra also thanked his Indian Premier League (IPL) franchise, Chennai Super Kings, for arranging practice sessions for him ahead of New Zealand’s subcontinent tour, which started with a two-match Test series against Sri Lanka earlier this month.
"It was an extremely invaluable experience. I thought, before the subcontinent, it'd be best for me to get a few days of training there. More realistic conditions than what we'd have on doctored or used wickets in New Zealand, which wouldn't serve the same purpose," said the 24-year-old.
"Luckily enough, the CSK guys sorted me out and gave me four or five days of really good training on red soil and black soil wickets. That was invaluable and helped me shore up some game plans and work on a few positions I wanted to."
Ravindra, who has not got the ball in hand so far despite being a more than good enough part-time spinner, said that he would want his team to get quick wickets in the morning and make inroads into Indian innings.
“It’s pretty hard to crystal ball gaze at the future. I guess you never know with India’s quality batting lineup on a wicket that’s not doing too much now. We have to hold our line and lengths for a long period as is the norm in Test match cricket,” said the man who scored 134 off 157 balls.
“I think the wicket of Virat [Kohli] was pretty important with the 9,000 runs that he has got. We know things happen pretty quickly in these parts of the world, so hopefully, we can stick at it and get a few bang-bang wickets in the morning,” he added further.
Even after Kohli and Sarfaraz Khan added 136 for the third wicket, New Zealand led by 125 runs in India’s second innings. With two days of play left, the Kiwis would be eying nothing short of a win to end their drought of a Test victory in India since 1988.
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