Rahul Dravid underlined the importance of staying together and functioning as a unit to be triumphant in the tough world of Test cricket while delivering a motivational dressing room speech after India registered a memorable 4-1 series win over England.
After losing the opening Test in Hyderabad, the hosts bounced back in stunning fashion to win the next four matches to claim the series.
"Series like this have to be earned and this is tough. Test cricket is hard at times. It's hard in terms of your skill. It's hard physically, as you've seen, it's hard mentally," Dravid said in a video posted on BCCI.tv.
"But it's great satisfaction at the end of it. The satisfaction that you get winning a series like this coming from one behind to be able to win four. I think it's just phenomenal," he added.
As key players like Virat Kohli and Mohammed Shami and KL Rahul, who played only the opener, were unavailable, India found heroes in some young names in the series. The home side handed debuts to five players — Rajat Paitidar, Dhruv Jurel, Devdutt Padikkal, Sarfaraz Khan and Akash Deep — in the marquee series.
In fact, Jasprit Bumrah and Ravindra Jadeja too missed a Test each.
The Indian coach was a chuffed man after some of those young names emerged with flying colours from the series.
"For a lot of you young guys, especially coming into this group, you are going to need each other to succeed. Whether you're a batsman or bowler or whatever you are, your success is tied in with other people's success.
"All of you are invested in each other's success. And that's really important going forward. It's not about your success, but it's about how you can help other people succeed, which will also help you succeed," he said.
The 51-year-old was delighted to see the players finding ways to turn the tide whenever they were put under pressure.
"There were times in the series that we were really challenged and pushed and we found a way to bounce back, which speaks to the skills that we have, the resilience that we have, the character that we have.
"On many occasions in this series the games could have gone either way. But we always found people in this dressing room who stepped up and turned the game our way. And that was fantastic." Dravid also said the team also did well to maximise advantageous positions.
"So, you not only need to win the games when you have to fight back, which we did really well. But you have to also win the games when you're ahead and you don't let the opposition come back in any situation." The former India captain praised the team for emerging winners from a long, gruelling series against a quality opposition.
"We talked about this at the start of the series as well. Irrespective of whether we win or lose this is going to teach us a lot -- a five Test match series. You're going to go through a lot of ups and downs.
"It's a long series, you're going to be tested. And it was going to teach us a lot about us as players or some as a team, and a lot about us and we've come through that exceptionally with terrific flying colours and we face challenges both on and off the field."
