'We Had To Bat Out Time': Hanuma Vihari Opens Up After India's Series Win Over Australia

India batsman Hanuma Vihari, who played a crucial role in helping the team secure an epic draw alongside Ravichandran Ashwin against Australia in Sydney, has revealed that they didn't try to go fo

"After the Adelaide Test, you won't believe, we as a team we never spoke about the game. We only felt that it has never happened before, I don't think it will ever happen again. It was a freak innings," said Vihari.

"So let's move on and let's look at it as a three-Test series from Melbourne. Now if you look at it, we have won the series 2-0. The Indian team, the character, and the fight we show, we leave everything on the ground. That's the hallmark of the Indian team. That's exactly how we played," he added.

The 12-Test veteran also revealed that he was in so much pain after the Sydney Test that he could hardly sleep that evening.
"I hardly had any sleep. Again, with pain. One thing was pain and the other thing was I was happy and overwhelmed with the respect and love I got on the internet, in the messages I got. I think I slept for one hour and got up again at 6 in the morning. That is the kind of feeling I got," said Vihari.

"I would say for all the years of hard work I had done in first-class cricket, where there are no people watching you play and you have to go through the grind and struggle and to have 1.3 billion watching back home and all the people in the world watching you save a Test match... That was the thought that came into my mind. Real satisfaction of going through the grind in the first-class arena and then achieving this, the satisfaction was really amazing," he added.

Vihari is not part of the India squad for the first two Tests of the upcoming four-match series against England beginning February 5 in Chennai. He is currently at the National Cricket Academy in Bengaluru and has started his rehab.