A few minutes after India were thrashed by England, head coach Rahul Dravid sat with Rohit Sharma near the dugout. It was a time when the support staff allowed some time for the defeat to sink in. The Indian crowd, who generally wait to wave at their team, had begun to move out quietly.
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Dravid then came out to face the press and was asked about the future of senior players in the T20 side. This Indian team has players like Sharma, Virat Kohli, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Ravichandran Ashwin and Dinesh Karthik, who will be well over 35 by the time the next T20 World Cup comes around in 2024.
Dravid probably did not expect this question to come up. “It’s too early to talk about it right now, just after a semifinal. These guys have been terrific performers for us. We have a couple of years to reflect on it. There’s some really good quality players here, so absolutely not the right time to talk about this stuff or think about this stuff right now. We’ll have enough games, enough matches as we go ahead, and India will try and build and prepare for the next World Cup,” he said.
However, the Indian board will have to take a call over the future roadmap for the T20 side, with Hardik Pandya or Rishabh Pant considered as captaincy material. The next T20 World Cup is two years down the line and it’s time the bench strength is groomed to take over by that time.
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Reflecting on Thursday’s game, Dravid denied that the 10-wicket defeat with four overs to spare was a debacle.
“I think they (England) played well. That’s the reality of it. Once they got off to that kind of start, I think they could really sit back and control the run rate. We had 168. They brought that run rate down to six and a half, I think, by the time the sixth over was finished, or seven runs an over, and then on a small ground like that, they were always in control, so they were going to control that game. They didn’t really need to take too many risks. They could sit back and – not that they didn’t take them; they played some really good shots right through,” he explained.
“Probably would have certainly liked to go a couple of steps further. But yeah, just outplayed, outclassed today. They were the better team in all departments, really. The scoreline showed that.”
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It has been more than nine years since India won its last major ICC trophy – the 2013 Champions Trophy – and the wait is set to continue. It was the first big tournament under skipper Rohit Sharma and Dravid, but the latter stressed there were some bright moments Down Under.
“I’m sure that when you lose in a semifinal, yes, I know it’s disappointing, but yeah, I’m sure there are things we can look back on and reflect on and see that we’ve improved in and we can take forward and move forward as we build for the next World Cup,” he added.
Ifs and buts
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Dravid believed 20 more runs and an early wicket during the England chase would have made matters interesting. However, both Bangladesh (against India) and Afghanistan (against Australia) had come close while chasing sizeable scores.
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“Yeah, honestly, we looked at those things. Also, runs on the board was something in a semifinal. We had been batting well. We were one of those teams that were, even in these conditions, scoring 180, 180-plus. I think we had done it two or three times in this tournament. So we were playing well,” Dravid said.
“It’s just, I think, maybe when the game started, the boys were saying it was a little bit tacky, it was a little bit slower. Having said that, they (England) bowled really well. I thought they were really good up front. They hit really good lengths, didn’t really let us get away. We felt at that 15-over mark, we felt we were probably 15-20 short, and we really had a good last five overs.”
The coach went on to lavish praise on Hardik Pandya, who was mainly responsible for India reaching 168. But Alex Hales and Jos Buttler made it look wholly inadequate.
“I think Hardik out there was absolutely brilliant… in the end, it looked like we were a lot shorter than even 15-20, but I think we should have been able to get to 180-185 on that wicket. Maybe things might have been different with an early wicket after that.”
The Indian bowlers went searching for an early wicket, but it backfired.
“We knew the key to the game obviously was to try and take that opening partnership as early as we could. We tried to attack a little bit with our lengths up front. We thought that was a tactic. They played that really well.
“The ball didn’t swing here probably as much as it has in other parts of Australia or in other conditions. Played a little bit into their hands, and class players like that, both Buttler and Hales, I thought their partnership was fantastic. I think they just put the pressure on us, never let that go, and even when our spinners came on, on a wicket that we thought we might be able to control the game, they really counterattacked our spinners as well, and put our spinners under a lot of pressure.”
