After suffering a devastating defeat of 3-0 against South Africa, head coach Rahul Dravid
on Sunday (January 23) stated that the current series has been a “good eye-opener for the
team; however, there’s plenty of time to prepare for the 2023 ODI World Cup and India will
improve in the coming days.
The fifty-year-olds who fought for their lives Virat Kohli (65), Shikhar Dhawan (61), as well
as Deepak Chahar (54), were in vain when South Africa completed a hat-trick of victories
with winning by four runs in the exciting 3rd and last ODI match to finish off a whitewash
of the series 3-0 in the series against India at Cape Town on Sunday.
“I believe this ODI series was a great eye-opener for us. We’ve not played many ODIs.
This has been my first experience with the ODI team. The team hasn’t played a lot of ODIs
since the 2018 World Cup.
Luckily, we’ve got plenty of time before the 2023 World Cup.
There will be plenty of cricket starting now, and the World Cup in white-ball format until the
year 2023.” Dravid said in the press conference after the match.
“It will provide a great chance to examine and grow and keep striving to improve. We’ll get
better, and there is no doubt about it,” he added.
I was impressed by Deepak Chahar’s ability to bat,
Dravid declared that the all-rounder has demonstrated his skill in the small chances he’s
been given and that the team would like to give him a better play in the playing XI.
“Deepak Chahar has proven his potential in the chances he’s had during his time with our
team here at Sri Lanka and over here well, he’s demonstrated some impressive capability
when it comes to batting. We know what he could accomplish with the ball, too.
I’ve watched him play at India A too, and I am sure he will bat extremely well, which surely
gives us many more options.” He stated.
“It is nice to see people like him as well as Shardul Thakur too as we’ve seen in the last
two games, play by bat too. That’s why, naturally, the growing number of players who can
play lower down makes an enormous difference.
It also gives us more possibilities. Therefore, we would like to offer Deepak more
opportunities to play alongside Shardul and some others who could take on the role in the
next year or so and give us more depth in our team,” he added.
Head coach Axar Patel said that the team did not have players like Hardik Pandya Ravindra
Jadeja and Axar Patel.
These players offer an all-around option for the team. “If you’re honest, a few players who
assist us in balancing our team and provide all-round options in the positions of 6, 7, and 8
aren’t and are not available to select.
When they are back with their options, they’ll probably provide us with more depth, which
will allow the team to operate in a different style,” said Dravid.
