India have been unbeaten in their 2023 World Cup campaign so far, registering four dominant wins against Australia, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Bangladesh.
Barring the initial hiccup in a modest 199-run chase – when India were left reeling at 2/3 – India hardly faced concerns over their performances, cruising to wins against the four quality sides in the tournament. However, the ICC weren’t too happy with the pitches that were produced for India’s games against Australia and Pakistan, labelling the surfaces as ‘average’.
While Australia were bowled out for 199 in Chennai, with India chasing down the target with six wickets to spare, the Ahmedabad surface saw Pakistan collapsing from 156/3 to 191 all out, with India taking merely 30.3 overs to secure a seven-wicket win. But while the pitches were adjudged ‘average’, India’s head coach Rahul Dravid expressed his disagreement with the assessment.
Dravid ‘respectfully’ disagreed with the evaluation, emphasizing that an ODI match should not be solely about the performance of the batters and their explosive abilities. It was rather hilarious as Dravid began in his response, though – the reporter had asked his question in Hindi and as Dravid began to respond in the same language, he switched to English to avoid “trouble.”
“Main definitely, respectfully disagree karunga. Vo good wickets the. (I will definitely, respectfully, disagree with the average rating given for those two wickets.) I’ll answer this in English because I might get myself into trouble!” Dravid said, leaving the room in splits.
“I think they were good wickets. If you only want to see 350 games and rate only those wickets as good, then I disagree with that. I think you have to see different skills on display as well. It’s not about if we wanted to see only fours and sixes being hit. If only those are good wickets, then why are the bowlers here? Why have spinners at all, for that matter?,” Dravid said in the press conference ahead of India’s match against New Zealand in Dharamsala.
“I think we should see all skills on display, the ability to rotate strike through the middle. See the quality of watching Jadeja bowl or Kane Williamson rotating the strike through the middle, the way Virat Kohli and KL Rahul batted against Australia. Those are skills as well. Those also need to come out and be shown and be displayed,” Dravid said on the eve of India’s match against New Zealand,” Dravid added.
India will be aiming to make five wins out of five when they take on New Zealand at the iconic HPCA Stadium in Dharamsala. The two are the only remaining unbeaten side in the World Cup.
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