After the failure of the 2021 World Cup, legendary cricketer Rahul Dravid replaced Ravi Shastri as India’s coach. After becoming a coach, he only wanted to win the ODI World Cup title held on Indian soil. However, the dream of this former cricketer has been broken by Mighty Australia.
In the 2023 World Cup, India entered the final after being undefeated in 10 matches, including 9 matches of the group stage and the semi-finals. But they lost when they reached the final. After losing the toss against Ajid in the final, they were able to score only 240 runs on the bowling of Mitchell Starc, Pat Cummins and Josh Hazlewood. India’s batsmen were all on the march. Virat Kohli, Lokesh Rahul picked up half-centuries but it didn’t work.
Ajira also failed to bat against the target of 241 runs. They lost 3 wickets for only 47 runs. After Travis Head’s 137 runs from 120 balls and Marnus Labuchen’s unbeaten 58 runs, Australia reached the port of victory by losing 4 wickets in 43 overs. In the press conference after the match, Dravid said, ‘I don’t believe that I played with fear in this tournament. In this final match too we had 80 runs in 10 overs. After that we lost wickets. When you lose wickets, you have to change your strategies and tactics. That’s what we did in this tournament.’
However, despite losing the match, Dravid did not hesitate to praise Australia for a worthy and good game. India coach said, ‘We were favorites because we played well but you have to accept that Australia is a very good team. They also came to the final after winning eight matches in a row. We had no doubt that it would be a tough match. We were confident that if we play well, we will get the right result. But unfortunately, on certain days they played better than us.’
India suffered in Ahmedabad right after the first innings. Runs are less than expected. Coach Dravid also regretted the lack of runs, ‘we scored 30-40 runs less. If you could score 280-290 runs, it would have been a struggle. Australia bowled very well. Didn’t let us hit boundaries. After Rohit’s dismissal, Virat Kohli and Lokesh Rahul were trying to build an innings. But their innings was not effective.
Coach Rahul’s big assignment was this year’s World Cup. But it was not successful, said the former cricketer of ‘The Wall’ fame. Dravid said, ‘To be honest I haven’t thought about it (the ODI World Cup). I think all our preparation, energy, focus was in this match and tournament. Even now. I don’t think about it now, I don’t have any plans for what will happen in the future.’
(November 20/NBW)