Mumbai, Dec 7 New Zealand all-rounder Daryl Mitchell will take the learnings from the long winter, which included the World Test Championship final and the recently concluded Test series against India, to improve his game and do better in all three formats going into the long summer of cricket that they have on the schedule.
The 30-year-old Mitchell has been part of the various New Zealand teams that played in England, visited Pakistan for the aborted series, and reached the final of the T20 World Cup in UAE and the T20I and Test series in India.
"It's obviously been a pretty busy winter for me personally and for us as a team. I have been away from home for six of the last seven months, which all started with the tour of England back in May for the World Test Championships final and a couple of tours of Pakistan and India and the T20 World Cup final and soon after that, we are here. So it's been quite busy and I have enjoyed it thoroughly," said Mitchell on Tuesday evening as New Zealand prepared to return home.
The Black Caps will be leaving India early on Wednesday morning and reaching home on Thursday morning.
The all-rounder said it has been a great experience for him participating in all three formats in the last couple of years and batting at various positions in different formats. He has shown a knack for coming at crucial junctures and doing well for his team in various formats.
"I believe you have to be able to adapt to various situations, different batting positions across the order. Any time you get to play for New Zealand is a real honor. I want to do my best for the emblem, for my country," he said.
He termed the experience of playing India in India as the ultimate challenge. "It's probably one of the ultimate challenges in Test cricket - coming out to India and taking them on in their conditions. They are obviously world-class and they did show that in the Test. It was nice to fire a few shots and put them under some pressure. We obviously would have liked to do well here but it was not to be this time. We will take a lot of learnings from this experience and look forward to the next visit," said Mitchell, who made his debut in the second Test against England at home in 2019.
Mitchell, who struck his first Test century against Pakistan in January this year and was awarded the New Zealand central contract in May.
The Kiwi cricketer also said that it was a different experience for him to play a Test in India as things were very difficult from home and they were not habitual of playing in front of such big crowds and it was unique to witness the crowd shouting the bowler's name as he walked on his bowling runup.
Mitchell said he is looking forward to the upcoming challenges for the New Zealand team, which has a very busy schedule ahead which includes a Test series against Bangladesh, a short hop across the ocean for the One-day and T20I series against neighbours Australia and then a series against South Africa in March.
Mitchell, who is the son of New Zealand rugby player and coach John Mitchell, is hoping to be included in the squad for series in all different formats.
Before that, as he gets ready to board the long flight home, Mitchell said he was looking forward to making it back to his country and meeting his young family.
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