Indian leg-break bowler Amit Mishra was named the Man of the Series in the recently concluded contest between India and New Zealand.

The Men in Blue won the series 3-2, with Mishra picking up 15 wickets, including a five-wicket haul in the deciding encounter at Visakhapatnam.

Speaking to bcci.tv after the series, the Haryana spinner mentioned that his objective was to look for wickets rather than just contain the scoring rate of the opposition batsmen.

“In this series, I was always looking to take wickets. Yes, I did bowl according to the situation, but my objective was to go for wickets. If you look to contain, you are going to get hit,” said Mishra.

As the senior member of the bowling unit, Mishra was pleased with his performance, having led from the front. With young spinners like Axar Patel and Jayant Yadav in the squad, Mishra’s role in the team became more important.

“As a senior bowler, I had the opportunity to talk to the youngsters in the side and share my knowledge. You can only make them understand, when you raise your game. If you lift your performance, they will get inspired and follow what you say,” said Mishra.

Despite resting key players like Ravichandran Ashwin, Mohammed Shami and Ravindra Jadeja, and missing out on Shikhar Dhawan and KL Rahul due to injuries, India didn’t falter and completed a series win. This was only India’s third ODI series win since November 2014, with the other two coming against Zimbabwe.

In the final ODI, the Indian bowlers – led by Mishra – bowled out the Kiwis for just 79.

“This is a very crucial series win for us. We had a young group and it is important that their morale stays high. The series was levelled and this was the final and the kind of performance that the boys shown. Bowling them out in just 24 overs is very important,” Mishra added.

“Now, when they play for India again, they will know what needs to be done and how they can get better. This win has sent a positive message to the youngsters.”

Mishra will be hopeful of breaking into the Test eleven as India gear up to play host to England for five Tests, with the first Test scheduled to begin on November 9 at Rajkot.