"We'll have to..." - Rahul Dravid makes huge statement about Bazball after loss in 1st Test

India head coach Rahul Dravid opened up about the loss the team suffered against England in the first Test against Hyderabad. He said they have to find ways to counter Bazball going further into the five-match series.

India suffered a disappointing 28-run loss against England in the first Test. The visitors batted and bowled sensationally well in the second innings and clinched the game. They made a great comeback after being down in the first two days and bossed Day 3 and 4.

Ollie Pope was the main reason behind England winning the game. The batter played a magical innings of 196 runs and made Indian spinners look clueless on the turning tracks. The main mantra behind his success was the sweep shots that he played.

Ollie Pope played sweeps and reverse sweeps to perfection and tackled the spinners well. He helped England take a lead of 230 runs when they were behind 190 runs. With the ball then, Tom Hartley ran through the Indian batting lineup and picked 7 wickets to help England bundle out the opposition for 202 runs.

Rahul Dravid while lauding Ollie Pope admitted that he has never seen batters playing sweeps, reverse sweeps perfectly against quality spinners. Speaking to the reporters in the press conference, he explained:

“We’ll have to counter that (Bazball). I certainly haven’t seen it being done that (playing sweeps, reverse sweeps)

consistently against that quality of bowlers. You’ve seen people try that before, and play some exceptional innings. But to be able to play it that consistently and that successfully without making that many mistakes, and maybe one or two odd mistakes, I probably haven’t seen it.

“Yeah, especially, the reverse sweep…I think the sweep is something that we’ve seen people employ in the past. But to be able to play a reverse sweep that consistently and that successfully for that long, you know, hats off to Pope.”

It’s not the first time that they’ve been challenged – Rahul Dravid

Rahul Dravid further said that Indian spinners need to be more disciplined with the ball. He, however, is optimistic about making a comeback, saying that this is not the first time that the team has been challenged.

Rahul Dravid is aware of the fact that they need to come up with better plans and strategies for Ollie Pope in the next game. He said that his team needs to be meticulous with their execution in the next game. He elaborated:

“We have to get more disciplined with where we pitch the ball. We will work on it and we will get better at it as we got some world-class spinners. It’s not the first time that they’ve been challenged. One of the good things about our spinners is that they’ve always come back.

“But Pope truly played an exceptional innings. And if somebody does something exceptional, we’ll shake his hand and congratulate him. It’s important that we respond. We need to come up with some plans and strategies and see how we can make him (Pope) play those shots from even more difficult lines.

“We need to be even more disciplined and meticulous with our execution because I thought our execution was a little bit off.

Hopefully, in the next Test match if we get our execution right, then I hope he makes a mistake.”

The second Test match between India and England will be played from 2nd February at Vizag. The Rohit Sharma-led side would be hoping to make a comeback in the second game and level the series.