Indian pacer Avesh Khan credited head coach Rahul Dravid for backing him against South Africa in the ongoing T20I series despite his disappointing performance in the first three matches.
The pacer had figures of 0/35, 0/17, and 0/35 in the first three T20Is of the series. However, the Indian team persisted with him in the fourth match. On Friday, Avesh pulled off a brilliant performance leading India to an 82-run victory. He took four wickets conceding just 18 runs in his four overs at an economy rate of 4.5.
Speaking at the post-match conference, Avesh Khan lauded head coach Rahul Dravid for backing the players. He expressed that the players cannot be judged on the basis of a few games. Avesh said as quoted by Sportskeeda,
“The team hasn’t changed over four games, so credit to Rahul (Dravid) sir. He gives chances to everybody and intends to give them a long enough run. He doesn’t drop a player after one or two bad performances because you cannot judge a player on the basis of one or two games. Everyone is getting enough matches to prove themselves.”
“I had zero wickets in three games but Rahul sir and the team management gave me another opportunity today and I ended up picking four wickets,” he added.
The Indian pacer dedicated his match-winning performance to his father, saying, “It’s also my papa’s birthday, so it’s a gift for him too.”
.@Avesh_6 scalped 4⃣ wickets and was our top performer from the second innings of the fourth @Paytm #INDvSA T20I. 👏 👏 #TeamIndia
A summary of his performance 🔽 pic.twitter.com/4ExtPvIlTB
— BCCI (@BCCI) June 17, 2022
I planned to attack the stumps and bowl the hard lengths consistently: Avesh Khan
Pacer Avesh Khan opened up about his bowling strategy during the fourth T20I series. He expressed that he tried to attack the stumps and hit hard lengths consistently. Avesh Khan said,
“Whenever we are batting first, I always end up asking the batters how the wicket played, whether it was two-paced or not. I spoke to Ishan (Kishan) today and he said that hard-length balls aren’t easy to play; some are bouncing, some are stopping and the others are keeping low. Then I planned to attack the stumps and bowl the hard lengths consistently. It’s in my hands to bowl well, not pick wickets.”
The youngster added that the focus was on picking wickets in the powerplay. He said, “The slower ball wasn’t very effective on today’s wicket, so I tried to bowl hard lengths with the occasional bouncer to change things up.”
“170 was a very good total on this wicket and all we wanted to ensure was pick a couple of wickets in the powerplay,” Avesh Khan concluded.
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