IND vs ENG: “I Watched Some Of The Games Today And I Know The Tracks Were Slow” – Rahul Dravid On Adelaide Surface

India National Cricket Team head coach Rahul Dravid has discussed India’s upcoming ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2022 semi-final clash against the Jos Buttler-led England National Cricket Team, which is set to take place at the Adelaide Oval on Thursday, November 10.

At the press conference, Dravid said that he can’t predict the exact conditions that will be at the Adelaide Oval during the India-England World Cup clash, but assured that they will be quick to adapt to the conditions even if the pitch is slow in nature.

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“It was, again, a different kind of wicket, and it was played at Adelaide, as well. I can’t sit here now just after a game and predict what’s going to happen there. We’ll have a couple of days; we’ll go and have a look at that wicket and see what we think it might do . Of course, if it’s slow we’ll play according to those situations. If we think it might play differently, then we’ll have to put up a squad to match that.”

“Again, we’ll have to go there and see. I watched some of the games today and I know the tracks were slow and they gripped and they turned a bit. We might be playing on a completely new strip in Adelaide, and the strip we played with against Bangladesh, to be honest, did not spin,” said Dravid in the post-match press conference.

Rahul Dravid further explained why the Indian batters can’t play with a particular strike rate in all the games of the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2022. He elaborated:

“Strike rate is different in every situation, ground and condition. If you are playing a match where 200 runs are to be made, or like on this wicket, where according to us, some movement was happening. But we felt that 170-180 was ideal, according to the information we got from the boys inside.”

“In a match like this, your strike rate has to be different. We have played in matches where 150 was a winning score and in Adelaide, 160 was a difficult score to chase in those conditions. In that scenario, you have to play the conditions.

“Honestly, you can’t say that this is the strike rate I want to play on, as this is the only certainty the World Cup has shown us. Conditions have been so unique in different cities that you have to adapt. It’s not been easy for the opening batsman, powerplays, strike rates.

“Other than I think in Sydney have been pretty low for all countries. Again, you have to adapt. Maybe when you go to Sydney you might have to play differently. Adelaide may be different, may not be different. I think it’s all about adaptability for me in this format.”

It’s a challenging format and tournament – Rahul Dravid

Rahul Dravid said that the T20 format and the T20 World Cup tournament both are highly challenging for every team. He stated:

“It’s a challenging format and tournament. When you have six teams and just one or two results don’t go your way, as we’ve seen with some of the other teams, I think with us, as well, I think one or two results could have gone the other way. We could have won some games, as well.”

“This is a very challenging format to be able to get through and get to the top four. It’s nice, and we’re happy about it, but obviously, we know that hopefully, we’ve got a couple of more good days in us as we go ahead.”

Rahul Dravid further said that they have been following the same process throughout the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2022 Super 12 stage and they will continue to follow the same process in the knockout stage. He stated:

“At this level, most of these guys are incredibly motivated. You don’t need to tell them to do anything extra. We stick to our processes. We stick to our preparation. We didn’t do anything (different) for this game.

“Irrespective of whether we’ve played South Africa in this tournament or Pakistan or Zimbabwe or Bangladesh or Netherlands, our processes and the way we’ve gone about our practice sessions has been exactly the same. We haven’t changed anything at all irrespective of the opponent, and I don’t expect that to change going into the semifinals, as well.”

Also Read: IND vs ENG: Rishabh Pant Should Be Preferred Over Dinesh Karthik In T20 World Cup 2022 Semi-final, Feel Robin Uthappa, Tom Moody