Rahul Dravid exposes ICC's cheap pitch tactics ahead of IND vs SA World Cup final in Barbados

The Indian cricket team’s outgoing head coach, Rahul Dravid, has expressed his pride in his team's consistency, having reached three ICC finals in the last 12 months: the ICC World Test Championship (WTC), the ODI World Cup 2024, and now the ICC T20 World Cup 2024.

Dravid hopes that a blend of strategic play and a bit of luck will finally help them to win the ICC title for India in more than one decade, as the Men in Blue are gearing up to take on South Africa in the title clash of the ongoing T20 World Cup 2024 on June 29 at the Kensington Oval in Barbados.

Rahul Dravid proud of India’s consistency in ICC events over the past 12 months

Team India has shown similar dominance in the ongoing T20 World Cup 2024 as in last year's ODI World Cup at home, where they narrowly missed the coveted title against Australia.

Well, the Indian team did have enough time to prepare for the grand finale, traveling to Barbados right after the semifinal in Guyana on June 27. There was only one day between these two big games.

Despite the short gap between the semifinal and the final, Dravid reassured that the Men in Blue are mentally prepared for the challenge, stressing they have done all tactical preparation and are excited for the summit clash against South Africa, who reached the World Cup finals for the first time.

Rahul Dravid said at the pre-match press conference: “It is a good thing we have been consistently playing good cricket. We have been in finals in all three formats and credit goes to the players. If we play well and rub of the green goes (our way) we will surely win.”

Rahul Dravid says Team India is ready for the ICC T20 World Cup 2024 Final

Speaking about India’s preparation for the final, the head coach said: “In terms of our preparation, we've just got one day in the middle, so it's unlikely we're going to be having practice. It's just about all the guys getting into ensuring that physically, mentally, tactically we are ready for the game.”

He further noted, “Those are the things that we can control, that we are fresh, that we've looked after all our niggles, if there are any. We've done all our tactical preparation and we're mentally relaxed and excited and looking forward to the game. We'll be looking to do that in the next 24 hours and try and get ourselves in the right frame of mind to be able to play that game.”

India aim to leverage past experience on Barbados pitch against South Africa: Rahul Dravid

Meanwhile, India managed to score 181 runs against Afghanistan on a challenging pitch that made playing on the rise difficult in their first Super 8 match in Barbados. When Dravid asked about India having a massive 'Pitch' advantage in the T20 World Cup 2024 final, the coach admitted that they aim to use that experience gained from that Syuper-8 match in their big game against South Africa.

Dravid said, “Yeah, I mean, just the fact that we've played a game in Barbados is nice. It's nice that we have that familiarity of having played on that surface in the past. But again, I think it's very hard to... We're not going to get the same wicket that we got last time. I mean, it can be different, right?”

In the end, the Indian coach said that he is just hoping that his team will have the ability to recognize the pitch conditions and be able to play accordingly as they did in the last three games when they will face South Africa in the T20 World Cup 2024 final in Barbados on Saturday.