India coach Rahul Dravid expressed disappointment over missed opportunities by the Indian batters in the first innings, stating that he believes they fell 70 runs short in the end, leading to the loss against England in the first Test. Despite bowling out England for 246 in the first innings and securing a substantial lead of 190, Dravid highlighted the batters’ failure to convert starts into hundreds as a contributing factor to the team’s setback.
Team India faced setbacks in the first innings as batsmen like Yashasvi Jaiswal, Rohit Sharma, and Shreyas Iyer lost their wickets to big shots, squandering their opportunities.
England staged a strong comeback in the second innings, setting India a target of 230 runs with Ollie Pope’s brilliant knock of 196. Facing a challenging task, India struggled in the second innings as Tom Hartley took 7 wickets, leading England to a 28-run victory.
During the post-match press conference, coach Rahul Dravid acknowledged the difficulties his team faced on Sunday and expressed regret over leaving 70 runs on the board in the first innings. He mentioned that chasing 230 runs on that pitch was not an easy task.
Rahul Dravid said, “we’ll have to counter Bazball. It’s important that we respond. We need to come up with some plans and strategies”. pic.twitter.com/BUeNWzIll4
— Mufaddal Vohra (@mufaddal_vohra) January 28, 2024
Rahul Dravid Backed Young Cricketers After India’s Defeat
Speaking at the post-match presentation, Rahul Dravid said: “I wouldn’t be so harsh to judge them. But it was a challenging wicket, and it’s been a bit of a challenge for some of our young batsmen to adapt. But you know, they’ve got the skill,”
However, Dravid expressed contentment with the progress of the junior batters. He added:
“They’ve come here by scoring a lot of runs in domestic cricket. They are being picked on merit. Sometimes it does take time for people to adjust. They’re working really hard and there’s a lot of thought going into their batting,”
“It’s just a question of them looking to constantly improve and develop skills that may help them counter these kinds of conditions a little bit better,”
Dravid further remarked that his team shouldn’t have found themselves chasing 230 runs to win in the end and emphasized that Ollie Pope’s innings of 196 was the decisive factor in the game. He said:
“To be honest, 230 was a pretty challenging score on this wicket in the fourth innings. It’s always going to be challenging in India. A score of 230 on a fourth-day wicket, which was turning. We probably shouldn’t have been chasing 230. It took a truly exceptional innings to get us to chase that amount of runs.”
He added: “To me, that really was the difference in the game. I thought the third day where Ollie Pope came out and played a fantastic innings. that’s something that set us back. He played a lot of high-risk shots and excecuted them superbly. That’s an incredible innings. 196 on a wicket like that where nobody else got fifty in their side was the difference in the game,”
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