Rahul Dravid, the Head Coach of the Indian Cricket Team addressed the Post-match Conference after Team India’s defeat in the final T20 against South Africa. India have won the series against the visitors, South Africa by 2-1. But the defeat in the last match has surely raised a big question in front of Skipper Rohit Sharma, Head Coach Rahul Dravid as well as the entire Team Management.
As Jasprit Bumrah will not be available for this World Cup due to his back injury, the Team will need to find a good replacement for him. Rahul Dravid in the Post-match conference officially made a statement that Team India will be leaving for Perth on the 6th of October (Thursday).
Early Arrival In Perth Will Help Team In Adapting To The Pace And Bounce Offered By The Pitches: Rahul Dravid
Ahead of the departure, India head coach Rahul Dravid explained why the side has been departing early for Australia. He said that team’s early arrival in Perth will help them in adapting to the pace and bounce offered by the pitches, especially when approximately half of the team has not played a T20I game in the country before.
Rahul Dravid said, “We will get an opportunity to spend a few days and sessions in Perth and then have a couple of matches there. Australia is quite unique in terms of the pace and bounce on those wickets and a lot of our players have not played a lot of T20 cricket in Australia,”.
Some of the major players from the team – Suryakumar Yadav and Arshdeep Singh haven’t had the experience of playing competitive cricket in Australia. Apart from them, Harshal Patel and Deepak Hooda had toured Australia but as members of the India U19 side in 2009 and 2013 respectively. And in terms of travelling reserves, leg-spinner Ravi Bishnoi has never played cricket in Australia.
Dravid said, “The idea was to give ourselves a chance to practice a little bit more, get acclimatised (to the conditions) and get some game time into practice. Having been to Australia before (in his playing days), it takes some time to get used to that pace and bounce and hopefully, once we practice, we would be able to have discussions around the sessions, strategies and tactics of how we need to play,”.
“It is important (to go early) as we get a little bit of extra time and have got quite a young squad which have a lot of people who have not played a lot of cricket in Australia. So hopefully that should help us”, he added.
Indian Skipper Rohit Sharma Also Gave The Same Reason
Indian skipper Rohit Sharma also echoed the same reasons when he was asked about the team’s early departure to Australia. He had said that out of the fifteen squad members, only seven or eight members had been to Australia before and this would help them to get acclimatize to the playing conditions.
“Lot of the guys haven’t been to Australia. That was the reason we are going there early and get used to the conditions there, which is why we are first going to Perth, try and play on those bouncy pitches and see what we can do there. Out of the fifteen squad members, only seven or eight members have been to Australia before, so half of the squad has not been there before.”
“We wanted to make the effort to go in early and get some practice games, like we have organized a couple of practice games against Western Australia plus there are two ICC practice games. So, that will help us get into our rhythm, what sort of combinations we can play,” said Rohit Sharma.