The Indian cricket team again failed to deliver when it mattered most, with Australia triumphing by 209 runs in the final of the ICC World Test Championship. Whether it was the bowling unit or the batting unit, the players barely managed to impress. India’s head coach Rahul Dravid understandably had to answer some tough questions after the match, particularly from his former teammates Sourav Ganguly and Harbhajan Singh.
Ganguly, the former BCCI president and captain of India, asked Dravid about the “falling averages” of Indian batters in recent years. Dravid defended the downfall, suggesting that averages in each team are dropping as pitches in Tests have become more results-oriented.
“Our top-5 are quite experienced. These players will be considered legends; the same guys won the series in Australia, the same guys won in England. They are good players. But I accept it, and I think they will doing.” , that they have not lived up to the high standards they have set for themselves,” Dravid said in response to Ganguly’s question during a chat on Star Sports.
“We are working on it. Some of the wickets were quite challenging. This was a good wicket, I admit, but there were a lot of conditions that weren’t quite right for the batting. In the WTC cycle, every match is important. We can “We no longer play for a draw. We have difficult wickets in India and result oriented wickets outside India. So all the players took a hit on their averages, it’s not just our players.
“But yes, we know we have to score points on the board to give our bowlers a chance. That’s what we used to do,” said the Indian head coach as he defended his batters.
However, Gavaskar was in no mood to buy the point from Dravid as the same players who are ‘Dadas in India’ falter in overseas conditions.
“It doesn’t matter what the averages of the other players are. We are now talking about the Indian team. The averages of the Indian players are falling, something has to be done. The hitting is the one that causes problems. Why is it That’s something you’re doing well in India, you’re the ‘daddy’s’ in India, but some are faltering out there,” Gavaskar told Star Sports.
Gavaskar also questioned the ‘level of coaching’ in the Indian team, saying it’s not about wins and losses but the way defeat hurts.
“Isn’t the level of coaching what you need? Isn’t there a lot of analysis on areas where you fall short? Honest self-assessment is an absolute necessity after this. One team is going to win, the other is going to lose. That’s how you lose, that’s where it goes oh, that hurts.
“We’re out too. And we’ve been miserable. You can’t say the current party is uncritical. You have to be analytical about what happened there. Was our approach good? Was our selection good? You can’t brush this under the carpet,” said a disappointed Gavaskar.
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