India U-19 coach Kanitkar says players will gain by playing in longer format

India U-19 defeated Australia U-19 in a close contest of the first Youth test series at the M.A. Chidambaram stadium on Wednesday.

India coach Hrishikesh Kanitkar felt both sides would gain a lot playing the longer format, “It was a fabulous match. Both teams will gain from this. There are many things to reflect and work on, which is the case for U-19 cricket, but both sides fighting it out in a close match and getting a result at the end helps everyone to step up and deliver.”

“The tour is important because you get to play against international players which is always helpful because it opens your eyes to many things, you get to know how they play, and their attitude, and you learn a lot of things. So from that angle, this is very important.”

When asked if a particular player impressed him, he said, “I’ll stick to what I said earlier, I will not single out anyone, you saw what Nikhil did, his half-century is as important as Vaibhav’s century in the first innings. I truly believe everyone is equally capable of these things. Our job (all the coaches) is to help them perform at their best.

When asked about the winning mindset, he said, “Firstly, you want them to learn. Winning is important. I’m not going to say it’s ok to lose. No. As coaches, we look at the development part as well, but the objective is to win every game, it’s as simple as that.”