We will evaluate why batters are failing in third innings of Test matches: Rahul Dravid

India head coach Rahul Dravid on Tuesday mentioned the repeated failures of his batters within the ‘third’ innings of a Test match is a matter of concern and they’ll sit with the nationwide selectors to handle the difficulty.

The Indian workforce, beneath Dravid’s tutelage, has misplaced its final three abroad Test matches — two in South Africa and one in Birmingham. It didn’t defend a whopping 378-run goal within the just-concluded recreation towards England.

India scored 266 of their second innings in Johannesburg, 198 in Cape Town and 245 in Birmingham, which has been successfully third innings of a Test match.

In all these three video games, India didn’t defend targets like 240, 212 and now 378. Asked how he plans to analyse, the Indian coach gave a glimpse of his humorous aspect.

“There is so much of cricket that we aren’t having any time to reflect. In two days, we will be talking to you about something entirely different,” Dravid mentioned, referring to the T20 International collection beginning in lower than 48 hours.

“…But we will certainly try and reflect on this performance. Every match is a lesson for us and you tend to learn something. We have to reflect why we aren’t able to bat well in the third innings of a Test match and why we aren’t able to take 10 wickets in the fourth innings,” he mentioned on a severe notice.

India play their final six video games of the present World Test Championship cycle within the sub-continent and Dravid plans to sit down with Chetan Sharma (chairman of selectors at present in England) to analyse the shortcomings.

“Now the following six Test matches are in sub-continent (2 in Bangladesh and 4 in India), and our focus will probably be on these remaining video games however clearly, coaches and selectors would sit down and analyse this defeat.

“That review happens after every game and so when we next travel to SENA land, we are well equipped to deal with it,” he mentioned.
Variety of causes for shedding sustained depth. The present workforce has been shedding steam throughout the third and fourth innings of a match and it might be due to quite a lot of components, together with bowlers’ health over a passage of time.

“It is something that we need to look at and work on. We have been very good in last few years being able to take those wickets but yeah we haven’t been able to do it over last few months,’ he admitted frankly,” mentioned Dravid.

He then listed out the components roughly.

“Could be a variety of factors — may be we need to maintain that intensity and may be we need to maintain that level of fitness, maintain that level of performance right through a Test match.” The batting is a reason behind concern, he mentioned again and again.

“Also in all these Test matches, the batting has also not been up to the scratch in the third innings as well. So both in SA and here, we have started well but haven’t been able to finish well. Certainly, we need to get better at that and improve,” he added.

The situations didn’t warrant a second spinner. Ravichandran Ashwin’s absence has been debated however Dravid defended the workforce’s technique.

“It’s not easy to leave someone like Ash out in a Test match but when we looked at the wicket on first day, it had a pretty even covering of grass, and we felt that there was enough in it for the fast bowlers,” Dravid defined the workforce’s place.

“Also, if you see, wicket hasn’t spun much either for Jack Leach or Ravi Jadeja, who bowled through the match. Weather also played a part as for first three days, there wasn’t long phases of sunshine. Probably, it didn’t spin as much as we expected it to.” Dravid mentioned that all the pieces seems to be totally different in hindsight however actuality is a bit totally different.

“It actually would have looked nice to have second spinner but it didn’t turn enough to justify inclusion,” he added.

Don’t find out about ‘BazBall’ however England have been distinctive. Dravid smiled when requested about ‘Bazball’, the favored lingo about Brendon McCullum’s optimistic affect on England’s Test batting over the previous month.

“I don’t know what it is. The cricket they played for four Tests, chasing like this in fourth innings doesn’t happen often in this country but the brand of cricket you play depends on players and their form. You can play positive (cricket) when you have form players,” Dravid mentioned.

No excuses that that is one-off Test

When the collection was halted at 2-1 final 12 months resulting from COVID outbreak within the Indian camp, Dravid was nonetheless the top of NCA and by the point it ended, he was the top coach. Did a one-off Test develop into an obstacle and preparations have been hampered.

“Look, I don’t need to make excuses. I wasn’t part of the workforce again then (in 2021). India was on a roll again then and England was most likely in a barely totally different scenario when the collection was on.

“They had now come here on back of three consecutive wins against NZ and we have had a long gap in between Test cricket and that’s why Test cricket is hard. So no excuses, you got to put in performances through five days and they did that and we didn’t so they deserve to win the Test match,” he concluded.