"I think in first innings..." - Rahul Dravid makes huge claim on where India lost 1st Test vs England

India head coach Rahul Dravid opened up about where the team lost the first Test against England. He said that they fell short of 70 runs with the bat in the first innings at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium in Hyderabad.

The start of the series didn’t go in India’s way as they suffered a disappointing 28-run loss. They had the game under their grasp on the first two days but after that, they let go the things off as England dominated Days 3 and 4 to win the game.

India bundled out England for 246 runs in the first innings. After that, they were right on the money with the bat as they added 436 runs in reply and took a lead of 190 runs in the first innings. But after that nothing went their way in the game.

England first ended the deficit and then set a target of 231 runs, thanks to the brilliance of Ollie Pope, who scored 196 runs. With the bat then, it was a horrible show with the bat as they lost wickets regularly, giving away 7 wickets to Tom Hartley. India got bundled out for 202 runs and went 1-0 down in the series.

Rahul Dravid admitted that India didn’t capitalize on good batting conditions in the first innings. He said that batters couldn’t convert the starts and no batter from the team hit a big hundred for them.

Rahul Dravid further admitted that it was not easy for them to chase 230 runs in the second innings. Speaking to the reporters in the press conference, he explained:

“I thought we left probably 70 runs on the board in the first innings. You know, I think in our first innings, when conditions were pretty good to bat in on day two, I thought in the kinds of situations we got ourselves into, some good starts and we didn’t really capitalise. We didn’t get a hundred, you know, we didn’t get somebody getting a really big hundred for us. 

“So, in some ways, in India, I just felt we left those 70, 80 runs back in the hut in the first innings. Second innings is always going to be challenging. It’s one of those things that, you know, it’s tough. It’s not easy to chase 230 or it’s not done very often.”

A lot of players are quite young – Rahul Dravid

Rahul Dravid further spoke about the poor outings of Shubman Gill and Shreyas Iyer, saying that they are young and are mostly playing white-ball cricket. He shows confidence in the duo, saying that they will learn and are getting better.

Rahul Dravid noted that pitches have been challenging as well which hasn’t allowed young batters to settle in. He believes that they have the ability and will come back strongly. He elaborated:

“A lot of players are quite young, in the sense that a lot of these guys do play a lot of white-ball cricket and also maybe don’t get a lot of time to get to play a lot of first-class cricket as well. So they’re learning and I think they’re getting there.

“To be fair, there have been challenging wickets as well over the last few years. And it’s been a bit of a challenge for some of our young batsmen to adapt. But they’ve got the skill and they’ve got the ability, and they’ve not come here just like that; they’ve come here by scoring a lot of runs in domestic cricket, doing well in A-team cricket. So, you know, they are being picked on merit.”

India would be hoping to make a comeback in the second game now. The match between the teams will be played on 3rd February in Vizag.