Rachin Ravindra.
Credit: PTI Photo
Raipur: Rachin Ravindra loves batting in Indian conditions and with another ICC event in the country on the horizon, the New Zealand batter seems to be finding his groove.
The left-handed batter had established himself on the international stage with three hundreds in the 2023 ODI World Cup in India. A contract with Chennai Super Kings followed, giving him more experience of batting in different conditions around the country.
In the second T20 on Friday night, he flaunted his special talent in his 26-ball 44 before getting out to a loose ball from Kuldeep Yadav. The drives on the up and two sixes each off Harshit Rana and Varun Chakravarthy showed that he had the perfect blend of power and poise in his game.
Going into the India series and T20 World Cup, Rachin did not have a lot of runs under his belt and therefore he was pleased get a good hit out in the middle.
"It is nice to play in India, know the conditions well. Good to have the scoreboard ticking.
"It's been quite a busy block ahead, so I had a lot of training at home, just preparing for these wickets, and trying to do a little bit, obviously, a long diet of T20 cricket ahead, so I was just trying to, shore up that stuff and find my bat swing again," said Rachin when asked about his preparations for the World Cup.
"We thought 208 was par"
India were able to chase down 209 with ridiculous ease to take a 2-0 lead in the five match series. New Zealand were on course for a total in excess of 220 but India fought back in the middle overs via Kuldeep Yadav.
Rachin gave due credit to Ishan Kishan and Suryakumar Yadav for acing the chase.
"The way India batted, it seems like 250 would have been a better target, but, I mean, yeah, potentially we lost a couple of wickets in clumps, and that sort of stalled our progress a bit, but I think the way Santner battered the end got us to a time that we thought was pa.
"... potentially with the dew sitting in and stuff like that, potentially we need to get 15, 20 runs more, but, hey, that's cricket in this country, and when batting teams get on the roll, it happens quickly, and the momentum's there for them," he reasoned.
The dew did play a role as it often does in India.
"When we batted first, in fact, it was actually a little bit wet, and then, obviously, progressively got a little bit more wet, so it makes it quite hard for the boys to grip the ball, and potentially skip on a bit better, but, again, it's taking nothing away from the way India batted," said the batter of Indian origin..
New Zealand can never be written off and Rachin remans confident of his team staging a comeback in the series.
"It's hugely disappointing. I think we never want to be 2-0 down in the series, but I think we've got a lot of heart in the changing room, and we've taken a lot from the first two games..
"Hopefully, we can put together a more complete performance in the final three, but, yeah, I mean, 208 is a good total, but I think we're remembering cricket over here, and how the ball flies so quickly, etc., and, like I said, India have a powerful batting line-up," he added.