ICC T20 World Cup 2022: Rahul Dravid Reveals Reason For Team India's Early Departure
Published - 06 Oct 2022, 12:39 PM | Updated - 23 Aug 2024, 12:13 AM
The Indian team has already departed for Australia today (October 6) for the ICC T20 World Cup. However, the Men in Blue left the subcontinent early in a bid to acclimatise to the Australian conditions.
Prior to the departure, India head coach Rahul Dravid explained why the side decided to leave early. The 49-year-old said that team’s early arrival will help the players in adapting to the pace and bounce offered by the pitches.
Australian conditions are unknown to most of the players in the India squad
It is to be noted that approximately half of the team has not played a T20I game in the country before with key players – Suryakumar Yadav and Arshdeep Singh amongst others not having the experience of playing conditions in Down Under.
Speaking at the post-match press conference after India’s 49-run loss to South Africa in the third T20I at Indore, Rahul Dravid said, “We will get an opportunity to spend a few days and sessions in Perth and then have a couple of matches there. Australia is quite unique in terms of the pace and bounce on those wickets and a lot of our players have not played a lot of T20 cricket in Australia.”
Identifying the pace and bounce of pitches in Australia will be crucial, reckons Rahul Dravid
“The idea was to give ourselves a chance to practice a little bit more, get acclimatised (to the conditions) and get some game time in to practice. Having been to Australia before (in his playing days), it takes some time to get used to that pace and bounce and hopefully once we practice, we would be able to have discussions around the sessions, strategies and tactics of how we need to play,” said Dravid.
“It is important (to go early) as we get little bit of extra time and have got quite a young squad which have a lot of people who have not played a lot of cricket in Australia. So hopefully that should help us,” he added.
