Extensive experience playing the Big Bash League in Australia has contributed to Jos Buttler and Alex Hales’ absolute dominance over India in the second semi-final of the T20 World Cup, head coach Rahul Dravid said on Thursday. Buttler (80 not out) and Hales (86 not out) added 169 runs in just 16 overs to embarrass India by 10 wickets in a high profile semi-final. Hales has played the maximum number of BBL among the current England group, having donned the Melbourne Renegades and Sydney Thunder’s jerseys.
“I mean, there’s no doubt that England — a lot of their players have come here and played. In this tournament, it certainly proved that. It’s difficult,” admitted Dravid that the winners had an advantage.
Buttler has also played for the Thunders and both England openers have traded against local team Adelaide Strikers on this ground here.
The BCCI does not allow any active Indian cricketer to play in overseas T20 leagues. “I think it’s very difficult for Indian cricket because a lot of these tournaments take place at the peak of our season,” Dravid said when asked if playing in the BBL would benefit the Indians.
“I think it’s a huge challenge for us. Yeah, I think a lot of our guys might miss the opportunities to play in a lot of these competitions, but if you did — it’s really up to the BCCI to decision,” he put the ball on the court of the parental body.
The BBL is held at the time of the Ranji Trophy and therefore there is no chance that Indian youngsters will get the chance to play. Giving players the opportunity to play in other leagues will end India’s domestic tournaments.
“The point is it (BBL) is in the middle of our season, and with the kind of demand there would be for Indian players, if you let them all play in these leagues, we wouldn’t have domestic cricket,” he said.
“Our domestic trophy, our Ranji trophy would be ready, and that would mean Test cricket would be ready,” said Dravid.
The BCCI would face a catch-22 situation if they opened the doors for its players to trade in foreign leagues.
“I know a lot of people are talking about it, but we have to be very careful when we – we have to understand the challenges that Indian cricket or the BCCI will face in a situation like this.” If Indian players are allowed into other leagues, Dravid thinks Indian cricket will become like the West Indies, which are struggling to keep the Test format afloat.
“You would see all our guys – like a lot of guys who are asked to play leagues in the middle of our season. We’ve seen what that has done to West Indian cricket, and I definitely wouldn’t want Indian cricket to go that way.
“It would definitely affect our Ranji trophy; it would affect test cricket. Indian guys playing test cricket is pretty important for the test game too I would think,” he added.
We came up 20 runs short in Powerplay overs
Dravid agreed that the team was not good enough against England that day.
“Last year we played good T20 cricket. Even in this tournament I think we had our moments. But on the day we just weren’t good enough here,” he said.
For Dravid, the loss in another knockout match is “disappointing, but not a debacle”.
“Yes, it is disappointing. Debacle is not the right word, but disappointing for sure.” The coach was the first to admit they fell short of the par score by placing 168 for six.
“Maybe when the game started the guys said it was a bit tacky, it was a bit slower. That said, they threw really well.
“I thought they were really good up front. They hit really good lengths, didn’t really let us get away. We felt like at those 15-overs we felt like we were probably 15-20 short, and we really had a good last five overs,” he said.
No swing for Bhuvi, Arshdeep
The new ball did not swing for both Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Arshdeep Singh and that was a major reason for India’s heavy defeat.
“The ball probably didn’t swing here as much as in other parts of Australia or under different circumstances. It kind of played into their hands, and such class players, both Buttler and Hales, I thought their collaboration was fantastic.
promoted
“I think they just pressured us, never let that go, and even when our spinners got to a wicket, we thought we could control the game,” he reasoned.
(This story was not edited by DailyExpertNews staff and was generated automatically from a syndicated feed.)
Topics mentioned in this article