Rahul Dravid disagreed with the ICC’s ‘average’ assessment of the Chennai and Ahmedabad pitches for India’s 2023 World Cup matches.
They then defeated Pakistan by 191 runs at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad. This time they won by 7 wickets with 117 balls remaining. They won eight points from four games after defeating Afghanistan and Bangladesh.
The ICC has rated the pitches of Chennai and Ahmedabad as ‘average’. Before the match between India and New Zealand (also unbeaten in four games) in Dharamsala, a journalist attending a press conference asked Rahul Dravid, the head coach of the Indian team, about his evaluation.
“I definitely disagree with the ‘average’ rating for these two wickets,” Dravid replied. “I think it was a good wicket. If you have only seen 350 matches and you want to rate only those wickets as good, I don’t agree with that. I think you need to showcase different skills as well.
“That doesn’t matter. If you just want to see fours and sixes hit, there are T20 wickets too. To be honest, Delhi and Pune probably have 350+ wickets as well.”
“I don’t agree with that, because I think we should showcase all our skills, the ability to turn shots into the middle.” Look, how much do you watch [Ravindra] Jadeja bowl? That’s great, look at [Mitchell]. You can watch Santner bowl, you can watch (Adam) Zampa bowl, you can watch Kane Williamson spin his mid-range shots, you can watch Virat Kohli and KL Rahul bat against Australia. These are also skills. These too need to be out in the world and displayed.
“On some wickets, even though we played, to be honest, in Delhi and Pune, rotating strikes in the middle overs wasn’t necessarily that difficult of a skill.” Competition was about who could hit the most fours. And six. So I don’t think that’s the only way to respectfully judge a wicket. I think we need to be better at determining what is good and what is average.
“So let me give you an example. I mean, that was us. So I don’t know what the rating was on those wickets, but we won the T20 World Cup in Australia. I played. I played 138, 138 matches in Perth. India are playing South Africa and I’m hitting and swinging here and there. This is a T20 game. I don’t know what kind of evaluation it received. I hope this also gets an average rating.
“World T20 final, Pakistan plays England. Again 130, scored in a T20 game. I am not complaining about that. I think it is good, it is great. That wicket at Perth was good. It challenged different skills. It brought different skills out in display. And I am saying this even though we have lost those games. So that is no problem with that. Sometimes wickets will turn a bit, sometimes they will seam a bit, they will swing a bit, they will bounce a bit. All we want to see is sixes and fours hit as good wickets in a 350 score, but then I’m different. ”
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