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“Pretty surreal,” Rachin Ravindra says,
summing up his two years in international cricket, which was capped by a
special ODI World Cup in India, where he scored 543 runs, with three centuries
and two half-centuries.
“Things have happened quite quickly, and I am
very fortunate to be here right now,” he said in Sylhet, where New Zealand
are getting ready for a two-Test series against Bangladesh before heading back
home where they will again play Bangladesh, though in a short-format series.
“At my age, being able to travel around the world
playing cricket, playing a game you love, for a living is pretty special. [It]
definitely has its ups and downs, but mostly I love every single moment,”
Ravindra, just past his 24th birthday, said. “Look, I think it’s a
testament to the team environment: to be able to come in and play with freedom,
and enjoy my time learning from those guys who have been here for so long. It’s
been great to rub shoulders with everyone, and hopefully I can keep learning
from them.”
Furthermore, switching from white to red ball cricket
is not a huge concern. Actually, Ravindra mentioned that he was looking forward
to it.
“I enjoy going back to red-ball cricket after
that (ODIs) because that means your intent… you are almost looking to score,
so, I mean, [it] keeps you in a good position to score,” he said.
“But probably here [in Bangladesh] it depends on the conditions, what the
pitch is doing, it’s probably going to dial that back a little bit, not as many
risks. You can still play your natural game, by understanding the surface and
the situation of the game dictates you.
“I think we sometimes don’t understand how long a
Test match really is – you have five days of 90 overs each day, so there’s a
lot of time here, so hopefully we can bring that calmness in the group from the
one-dayers to the red-ball stuff.”