Rahul Dravid, former captain and current head coach of the Indian cricket team, admitted that his bowlers conceded over 100 runs too many in the first innings of ICC World Test Championship 2021-2023 final. Last Indian captain to have won a Test series in England, Dravid reckoned the same to be one of the reasons why India lost WTC Final vs Australia today.
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Dravid, however, justified captain Rohit Sharma‘s decision to bowl first in a post-match chat with Star Sports Network even though the decision brought a lot of severe criticism towards India especially after a couple of Australian batters scored top-notch hundreds in the first innings.
“It was quite cloudy. Teams have generally elected to field first in Test matches in England of late.”
Readers must note that Sharma had also pointed out towards the overcast conditions in London at the toss on Wednesday. As far as toss outcomes are concerned, captains opted to field first seven out of the 12 Tests (excluding the final) which have been played in England in this Test Championship cycle.
Rahul Dravid Provides A Reason Why India Lost WTC Final Vs Australia
That being said, Dravid didn’t justify his bowlers performance in the first innings. Stating without an iota of doubt that India should’ve restricted the opposition in vicinity of 300, Dravid didn’t mince his words to mention that the pitch at The Oval wasn’t worthy of a team innings total of 469.
“Yeh 469 ka wicket nahin tha [This wasn’t a 469 wicket]. We didn’t bowl to the best of our abilities. Gave a lot of room to the Australian batters on Day 1. Had we restricted them to anything around 300, it would’ve been a tight fourth innings.”
Rahul Dravid Corroborates Sunil Gavaskar’s Criticism Regarding “Shot Selection”
Additionally, Dravid attested to legendary Indian batter Sunil Gavaskar‘s criticism of Indian batters’ shot selection in the second innings. Speaking with respect to Day 5, Gavaskar exclusively singled out former captain Virat Kohli and all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja for getting out in the seventh over.
“We could’ve been careful with the shots we played [in the second innings].”
Other than Kohli and Jadeja, top-order batters namely Sharma and Cheteshwar Pujara also faltered with their shot selection in the third session of the the penultimate day. With three out of the first five Indian wickets coming of well-set batters through false shots, chasing a mountainous 444-run target was always going to be an improbable task for remaining batters.
