After a disappointing loss to England to end their T20 World Cup 2022 campaign, India’s coach Rahul Dravid accepts that England were too good, but refuses to label India’s performance a ‘debacle’.
Outclassed by 10 wickets in Adelaide in the semi-final, India make their way out of the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2022 and Dravid admitted that the result was a “disappointment” for the Rohit Sharma-led team.
India looked listless with the ball as England pummelled runs in the Powerplay overs to eat significantly into the target and ease the pressure on the rest of the run chase and Dravid underlined that as a key factor behind England’s win.
“We tried to attack a little bit with our lengths up front,” Dravid explained in the post-match press conference.
“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 today.
“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.”
The unbeaten opening stand of 170 between Jos Buttler and Alex Hales is the highest for any wicket in the T20 World Cup and the ruthless display from the duo saw England cruise to a win inside 16 overs.
But the target was possibly never too high for England in reality on this Adelaide wicket and Dravid agreed that India were quite a few runs short with the bat.
“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.
“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 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.
“I think Hardik out there was absolutely brilliant, but 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.”
Bengali