India vs West Indies 2016: Amit Mishra says his role is to create pressure on the opposition

Amit Mishra celebrating a West Indian wicket with captain Virat Kohli

Indian leg-spinner Amit Mishra seemed pretty happy with his performance in the first Test against the West Indies. He might have picked up only 3 wickets but was content with how he was able to create pressure on the Windies batsmen from his end. Indian off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin picked up most of the wickets in India’s massive victory over the home side.

Mishra was quoted by the Hindu as saying, “All we can do is try and bowl well, and that is what I am trying to do. Getting wickets is not in your hands. Sometimes partnerships build up and you have to create pressure from either end.”

Mishra explained his role which was to keep on bowling and creating pressure as he hopes to pick up a few more wickets in the next match.

“So I tried doing that from one end, while the others were picking wickets from the other end, fast bowlers in the first innings and then Ashwin in the second. My role at that time was to keep up the pressure and keep bowling. Hopefully, I can take a few more wickets in the next match”

Mishra also scored a fifty in the first Test match and hailed the team effort which got India the victory over the West Indians. According to Mishra his partnership with Ashwin was a crucial one which helped them go past 550. “While batting with Ashwin, we added a 100-plus partnership and we could get 550-plus. So that put added pressure on the West Indies. As I said, it was a collective effort and I am very satisfied with what I did in the first Test. At this moment, we have the momentum and everything is going well. We just have to build on it going forward.”

The talented leggie feels that his team is boosted by the win and their main focus now is to perform well in the rest of the series. India is scheduled to play West Indies in the 2nd test in Jamaica which starts from Saturday.

“We feel highly motivated after that win. It was a collective effort and we did well all around, in batting, bowling, fielding and holding catches, everywhere. But we need to forget all that now and totally concentrate on the next match. For us, the effort now is in moving on from that win and yet continuing to do well in the coming match and remainder of the series”

Mishra spoke about the importance of getting the tail-enders out at the end and how they had planned on getting the job done. He added, “Sometimes you can get the main batsmen out but the tail can wag and play longer. So it becomes tough to get them out because you are concentrating on the main batsmen, and the last 3-4 wickets keep on playing. But we had discussed that in the dressing room, and then it was decided that we would look to bowl wicket-taking deliveries at them so that runs couldn’t be scored easily either.”

The Indian bowler was also pleased that the bowling plan worked out well for the side and the fact that they played aggressive cricket ensured the tail-enders were sent back rather quickly. 

“And the best thing is that those plans worked out well. When you play attacking cricket, you try to be aggressive and the mentality changes. We are always trying to take wickets and we talk about that more in the dressing room, and not just containing the batsmen”

India did put on a tremendous performance in the first Test and the away side would be looking for a similar performance as they look to go two-up in the four-match Test series.