Rahul Dravid (India Coach) pre-match Press Conference - 19th June 2024
[Reporter:]
Well, playing in a country where cricket is held regularly unlike in America and taking on Afghanistan which has a not caring attitude, how do you see this match?
[Rahul Dravid:]
Yeah, I mean, firstly, it was good to play in New York. I thought all the three games that we played were really well attended, which is fantastic. But it's also now lovely to come to the Caribbean, come to Barbados, to come to this ground which has a great history and a great tradition of cricket in this country and in this region. It is fantastic as well and we are really looking forward to it. We have had a couple of days of really good practice and we feel we are ready, we feel we are rested, we feel we are prepared. And we know Afghanistan is a very dangerous team in this format of the game. They have shown their performances in this World Cup. But also, if you just look at their squad, they might not have a lot of international experience as in the other formats of the game, but a lot of their players do play in a lot of T20 leagues, more than in fact some of our players do. But they are sort of well-travelled cricketers, especially in the T20 circuit, T20 league, a lot of them. They are very prominent members of their IPL teams, other teams as well. So, certainly in this format they are not a team to be taken lightly. They are deservedly in the Super 8’s and we will not treat them any differently as we would treat any other team that we expect to play in the Super 8s.
[Reporter:]
Rahul, in India, Indian team generally used to playing white ball cricket under lights. So, in all games now onwards, even in New York, will be in the day. So due factor kept aside, that is eliminated anyway. What were the challenges for the Indian team to play in the day time?
[Rahul Dravid:]
Like you said, it is slightly different for this generation of cricketers. They don't play a lot of games at 10:30. But look, I don't think it's too much of a hassle. Once you get used to it, once you get your mind around it, as we have, there are some, obviously, factors that, like you said rightly, the dew will not be a factor. So not something that we would consider at a say for a 10:30 game, but then there are other things which you might consider like the slowness of the pitch or other factors that you would consider when it is a day game So there are certain I'd say tactical things that might be slightly different. But other than that, to be honest, I think it doesn't really make too much of a difference. The guys are used to it now. I think there will be great crowds even for this game, whether it's at 10:30 or whether it's at 8 o'clock. I expect most India games to have very good crowds. So, I think from that perspective, I don't really think it makes too much of a difference.
[Reporter:]
Rahul, you spoke about a flexible batting order, something that Rohit also alluded to, saying that the openers will be static and the rest will change depending on the situation. Is it something that is specific to a T20 perspective or do you see this happening across formats going forward? Not just for India, I'm just saying in a larger perspective.
[Rahul Dravid:]
I just think each situation is unique. I think each situation is unique. It's hard to keep something set in stone. At least that's my belief. I always do believe in being flexible in your thinking, being able to adapt to situations. What does your team require? What do the conditions require? I think it's something that we've always been conscious of, the concept of being able to have players who can be adaptable and float in that middle order if and when required. And it's something that we've continuously striven to do as and when required and as and when possible. Not just for the sake of it. A lot of times you make these changes, keeping something specific in mind. It works sometimes, it doesn't work sometimes. I think you can't judge everything only on the results. You always have to go behind and see what is the thinking behind some of these things. Various situations will demand. The Pakistan game, we moved Aksar up the order. There was a specific thinking around it. There are other situations where we have moved Rishabh a little bit up the order in this thing. So, there's been a little bit of thinking around that. So yeah, there's a lot of thought that goes into some of these things and we do think about it. But again, I mean, I don't think the Test format will have too many flexibilities. One day cricket again, we are seeing that, depending. But I think in the T20 format, especially with the match-ups, with the dimensions of ground, with the kind of conditions, you do see it happening quite a lot more in the T20 format where I guess every over or every 10 balls is actually quite critical and matters much more than probably it does in another format. I think most teams, I think, are trying to make use of that, trying to make use of match-ups, trying to make use of the best use of their resources to try and get maximize the 120 balls that they can.
[Reporter:]
Rahul, you've of course as a player you've played here, not the best memories of the 97 test, I'm sure.
[Rahul Dravid:]
Rahul Gandhi – Jeez, thanks a lot buddy. Had some other decent memories also in life.
[Reporter:]
So yeah, that is actually my question. So, a chance for you to probably make new and much better memories tomorrow.
[Rahul Dravid:]
God man, I'm not trying to make new anything man. I move on from things very quickly. I think that's one of my things. I don't look back on things. I try and do what I am doing now at the moment. I am not concerned about what happened in 1997 or some other year. If you had told me that by winning this, you would ensure that instead of scoring whatever we scored 80, we would make it 121, then I would be bothered. But even if we win this match tomorrow, unfortunately, that is still going to remain 80 on the scorecard. However much I might try and will it. So no, I do not think about any retribution or thinking back and looking at it. I move on from things. What's in front of me, what's here, good or bad. I think it's one of the things - I don't think of myself too much as a player anymore. And yeah, just move on. Focus on tomorrow. Try and get a good result tomorrow. Prepare the team as best as we can.
[Reporter:]
Rahul, what would you think about the outfield dimension, because it matters in T20 cricket – there is a slope, a much better outfield. Compared to New York how do you see this pitch?
[Rahul Dravid:]
Again, that’s a factor you will consider. Like I answered the earlier question, sometimes you consider tactical things. Obviously, while dew may not be a factor, maybe the wind could be a factor in this place. The wind blows quite strongly from one side to the other. Like you said, the boundary sizes might be smaller on one side, bigger on one side. There's a bit of a slope. It's probably be a quicker outfield than what we experienced in New York. So, again, we'll have to adjust, we'll have to adapt. We've discussed these things to be very honest. We've had some really fruitful meetings over the last couple of days, both as a leadership group and even with the players, quite a few individual chats as well, team chats. So, yes, a lot of these points have come up. There's a lot of intelligence in the group. It's not just us as coaches talking to the players, but so many of these players have played so many games. They have a lot of experience. We've in fact in our squad, we think we have seven or eight guys who captain teams regularly. So, there's a lot of intelligence, a lot of conversations, a lot of ideas that do come out and become part of the discussion. So, yeah, I've really been happy with some of the chats we've been having over the last few days and really hope we can now execute some of the things. And that's the most important thing, is the ability to execute. Ideas are good, I think. We've got really good ideas, good plans. But you need to be able to execute them too, then for them to look good as well.
[Reporter:]
Rahul, one of the impetuses for you as a leadership was to become more proactive when batting and being okay with taking risks. Whereas when you came here for the World Cup, you were presented with completely different conditions to which you all adjusted very well. But again, it was three matches at the same venue. Now, you're coming into the business end and you're getting a new venue every time, and especially if you're put in, and even if you go three, four hours without like really assessing the conditions really well that can cost you the game. So, how do you go about, what are the best practices you put in to go about mitigating that kind of a misstep?
[Rahul Dravid:]
Like you rightly said, a lot of the impetus over the last few years – and I think we’ve done it in most parts, has been to push the needle forward. If you look at a lot of our stats and numbers, we have pushed the needle forward in terms of our batting. There's no question about it.
Sometimes in certain conditions - you've just got to be mindful of conditions also. I think sometimes we just get carried away in T20 cricket and just talking about pushing the needle forward, pushing the needle forward. But then, it's also, cricket is a very condition-specific game. It's one of the only sports left where the surface makes such an impact on the actual skill levels, the actual performance levels, what is an acceptable performance level. It's one sport that we play where the surface makes a huge difference and it has to be brought into consideration at all times. I think we saw that in the US and we saw that in New York, that had to be brought into consideration not only for us but for other teams as well. I think everyone had to do that. Actually, even in Australia at sometimes, there were times in that where you had to bring that into consideration. Not every wicket is Hyderabad or not every wicket can be the same. So, I think that's something we pride ourselves in as well. I think we are trying to also get that ability to be smart in our decision making, to try and assess situations cleverly. We feel we've got the experience and the knowledge and also the ability to counteract different situations that may present themselves. And then, of course, we are looking at things that the past games that have been played here, what have been the scores, what's the level of swing that people are experiencing, amount of turn they're getting, what's the bounds. So, you look at all of these factors and you come up with some basic ideas as to what you might think is the thing. But again, I think you've got to keep an open mind. I think that's an important thing. You might have all the stats, you might have all the data, but on the day, sometimes conditions can be very different to what you think it is. Just because a particular ground has produced certain number of runs in the past or even in 10 days prior, it can be very different because the preparation of a wicket, the weather, so much can change. Even in the two or three days leading into a particular game, a lot can change that can force you to recalibrate and rethink. I think we will have to do that, be quick and smart and be able to do that and assess the conditions. I hope we will do that. If We want to succeed in this tournament, like you rightly said. Teams are going to play in different venues. All teams are going to have to be quick in adapting and assessing those situations.
[Reporter:]
I just want to know that on those drop-in pitches In New York, we had eight batsmen in our batting lineup. But considering the conditions over here and some of the teams which has played all the matches over here, some wrist spinners are doing really well, like Adam Zampa, Adil Rashid. So, does that come into the scheme of things as well, going into the Super 8 stage?
[Rahul Dravid:]
Absolutely. We've built our squad believing that anyone in the 15 can come into the side and play. A lot of thought has gone into the squad, keeping all kinds of conditions in mind. We're lucky that we've got a few all-rounders in the mix that allow us to be able to do that. So, like you rightly said, even though in New York we had eight batting options, we also had seven bowling options. So, we had both sides covered to a large extent. Yes, of course, the wrist spinners we do understand play a big role. We've got two really quality wrist spinners. So, certainly I'm sure that they will come into this tournament sooner rather than later.
[Reporter:]
Taking that forward, coach, how difficult was it to leave Kuldeep out of the playing XI because he's been probably India’s best spinner across formats and we’ve seen turn in the practice pitches – so your thoughts on the pitches as well and how big a role is he going to play in the Super 8s?
[Rahul Dravid:]
It's tough to leave anyone out. All the four guys that we left out in those games, to be honest, are all quality players, quality performers. Any one of them actually coming into your squad, if you were to look at it, man for man will not make your squad a weaker squad. It's just that the conditions and what we felt was the requirement in that particular venue made us go with that particular combination where we felt that there wasn't a huge role for spin and it was more a pace bowlers kind of conditions. And we also wanted to ensure that we had the depth on those tricky kind of wickets if and when required. So that's what we went there with. Here it might be different obviously without giving too much away certainly it might be slightly different here we might need feel the need that we might need an extra spinner and then certainly someone like Kuldeep or Yuzi with their quality and their skill do come into play and do become really big factors for us and that is the thinking in which why they have been selected because we knew that conditions could be potentially different in each of the different islands or each of the different countries.
[Reporter:]
[inaudible]
[Rahul Dravid:]
I mean, like I said, there's no point going into the preconceived notion of deciding that this is what we will do. It is important for us to recognise that they have a good bowling attack all round. Even their two pacers are quite experienced, whether it's Faruqi and Naveen Ul Haq have both played a lot of cricket, they both swing the ball as well. So, they've got a pretty good bowling attack, there's no doubt about it. I think their bowlers are some of the most sought-after bowlers in this format across the world in different leagues. We understand that that is going to pose a challenge to us and we are going to have to play well and counter that. We have got the skills and we have tried to create the balance and the depth in the squad that allows us to counter their bowling attack, not only spinners, but fast bowlers as well. Counter their bowling attack, that hopefully we can get a power-pullout score or chase down whatever score they set for us.\
