“We are getting close” – Rahul Dravid on India’s chances of winning ICC trophy after losing WTC 2023 final

Team India head coach Rahul Dravid chose to stay optimistic after they lost the ICC World Test Championship (WTC) final against Australia by 209 runs on Day 5, Sunday (June 11).

The 50-year-old said that the team has gone from strength to strength over the last couple of years. Dravid pointed out that the Rohit Sharma-led side has now reached the semi-final of the 2022 T20 World Cup and finals of the WTC, which are brilliant signs heading into the 2023 ODI World Cup.

The former India captain, however, was displeased with Team India for their failure in the WTC final. Dravid told Star Sports:

“We are getting close. We are getting to the semi-finals. We are getting to finals, but I don’t think we played our best game in the last five days. We will be going through the data, the numbers, and stats. We will look back and see. We have been at our best, in the T20 World Cup and the next semi-final.”

Dravid further discussed India’s spin-friendly conditions as Harbhajan Singh reckoned that it's one of the reasons behind Team India’s failure in overseas conditions in Tests. He said:

“I think nobody wants wickets to turn from the first ball and turn square. As you get to the back end of it, everyone wants to have turns. Australia also used to play on wickets, where the wickets get lost in three to four days. When you play on conditions like this, they can go variably. I agree that some wickets in India were difficult.”

The veteran also seemed disappointed with Team India’s schedule, as the players got only two weeks to prepare for marquee events like the WTC final after IPL 2023. Dravid continued:

“The schedules are so tight and so much, you need to be better prepared due to the packed schedule. No complaints, I wanna congratulate Australia for the cricket they have played. No excuses, no complaints, but they were the better side on this day.”

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“This was a good pitch, I’ll admit” – Rahul Dravid unhappy with the Indian batting unit's flop show in WTC 2023 final

Rahul Dravid sounded disappointed with Team India’s batting unit after the top order, including captain Rohit Sharma (15 & 43), Shubman Gill (13 & 18), Cheteshwar Pujara (14 & 27), and Virat Kohli (14 & 49) failed to play big knocks in the WTC final. He said:

“Our top five are all very experienced. These same players have won in Australia, in England. This is not up to their high standards. Some of the wickets have been quite challenging. This was a good pitch, I’ll admit. But some of the other places it’s been tough.”

Dravid continued:

“I will say that there have been better conditions at times, when we played in South Africa or others. Even in India pitches have been tough. Taking this into account, averages have dropped across the board, not just for us.”

The Indian head coach added that the batters could have helped the bowling unit by piling up a big score in the first innings. He concluded:

“Every match is important, and you need to win every match. The average is low for every player across teams. But as you said, you [Ganguly] are correct. If we give runs to our bowlers, it’s a plus point. Harbhajan used to play for us, and he used to feel good when we pile up runs.”

Click here to check out the WTC 2023 final full scorecard.