As many as 453 runs were scored on the third day’s play in Bengaluru but before the batting took over, India’s bowlers had made the first session their own, picking four wickets for 40 runs and leaving New Zealand in a spot of bother. Barring that, however, it was the turn of the bowlers from both sides to be doing the pick-up job. Starting it all was Rachin Ravindra’s 134, with good company from a free-flowing Tim Southee. It was tough day out for the bowlers with conditions being far-removed from how it was on the first day. Each batter had a different way to skin the cat, and for Ravindra what worked was playing to a style that he is now accustomed to.

His dominant run-scoring was through the onside, contributing to 58% of his runs overall. That he does that without the conventional sweep shot, a common talking point for batters coming to India against the spinners, puts him in a unique position as a visiting batter. When he did sweep, it was the slog through midwicket which brought him as many as four sixes. For the rest, it was his wrists that did the heavy lifting. Consequently so, his preferred area of scoring came through the midwicket region or through long on where he got 67 of his 78 onside runs.

The surface in Bengaluru was still playing good, albeit keeping low on a few occasions when he was tackling India’s spinners, and the little turn available was not alarming. The bigger challenge here was to counter the situation New Zealand were in, for they were in danger of allowing India to sneak back into the game. A rollicking stand, with Tim Southee, worth 137 in 131 balls followed, pushing the door back on India.

“I guess on a wicket like this, you’re able to pick and choose at times, because it wasn’t doing too much – not too many demons in it. Especially in Test cricket these days, it feels like you always have to drive the team forward and always score runs. You see teams around the world, the way they’re scoring, the run rates are up, and that just feels natural. So, I think for us, it was just trying to push that on and take those options as we could,” Ravindra explained after the day’s play.

“[They’re] obviously world-class bowlers, but I think it was a situation that demanded it. We were seven wickets down. We had a lead, but it was important [to keep building on it]. It was still a good wicket to bat on, I believe, so it was important for us to still score runs, tick the scoreboard over, and I think it just presented opportunities to score.”

It was during this period that he brought about the slog-sweeps which had otherwise been put in the back-burner until one of them brought about his end. By and large, his methods to counter spin had by then left even the opposition enamoured. He was given plenty of acknowledgement on the field from the Indian players as he walked back, and even more so at the end of the day.

Kuldeep Yadav, who came close to picking him twice, had a smile on his face when commenting on Ravindra’s knock. “He batted really well. I did miss the chance of taking his wicket a couple of times. But overall, he is a great player and has improved a lot in the last two years. He has a good batting technique and looks comfortable against the spinners.

“But, I just hope he doesn’t bat so well in the remaining contests against us,” said Kuldeep with a chuckle.

Ravindra honed some of his spin skills at the Chennai Super Kings academy in the lead-up to the Tests in the subcontinent and had the opportunity to train on a variety of wickets there as well. “It was an extremely invaluable experience. I guess I thought, before the subcontinent, with the sort of success we had, maybe it’d be best for me to get a few days of training there. Bit more realistic conditions than what we’d have on doctored or used wickets in New Zealand, which wouldn’t serve the same purpose.

“And luckily enough, the CSK guys really sorted me out and gave me four or five days of really good training on red soil and black soil wickets. That was invaluable and helped me shore up some game plans and work on a few positions I wanted to,” explained Ravindra.

His storied connection with Bengaluru, where his family hails from and where he has a World Cup hundred, now has another chapter in it. And despite the day’s focus on batting, the Indian bowling group might just have Ravindra on the corner of their mind with plenty still left in the series.