2024-08-22 12:39:29
Mumbai: Legendary cricketer Rahul Dravid believes that sometimes a little luck can also affect the results of a big match. For this, he gave the example of India’s heartbreaking defeat to Australia in the ODI World Cup final and his team’s spectacular victory against South Africa in the T20 World Cup final. India reached the ODI World Cup final last year after winning 10 consecutive matches. When the best team of the tournament clashed with Australia in the title match, nothing worked for them.
What did Rahul Dravid say?
Six months later, captain Rohit Sharma and Dravid together completed the unfinished task. Luck favoured the Indian team against the strong South Africa in the T20 World Cup final. Dravid was honoured with the ‘Life Time Achievement’ award during the ‘CEAT Cricket Rating Awards’. He said, ‘I got time to reflect on this. I got time to think about a lot of the things that we did. Sometimes you realize that you have to do a lot of these things, you have to follow the process, you have to do everything right. Sometimes you need a little luck. In the T20 World Cup final against South Africa, 30 balls were to be bowled and 30 runs had to be scored. Then it was a matter of Rohit’s excellent implementation of the strategy and keeping patience.’
Former Indian coach Rahul Dravid said, “We did not focus on what we have to do, but we needed a player who can do it within a certain limit,” without referring to Suryakumar Yadav’s boundary-line catch to dismiss David Miller. This catch turned the match in India’s favour. Dravid then recalled that India was close to dismissing Travis Head in the ODI World Cup final but the opener was lucky and scored a match-winning century and dashed India’s hopes. He said, “Sometimes things may go in your favour, but you should stick to the process.”
India’s bench strength appreciated
Dravid retired as India’s coach after India’s T20 World Cup win. Praising India’s ‘bench strength’ and ability to consistently produce great players, Dravid said that the next generation of players has successfully carried forward the legacy of the ‘Fab Five’. Dravid himself was part of the ‘Fab Five’ along with Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly, Virender Sehwag and VVS Laxman which enthralled cricket fans around the world.
He said, ‘I left cricket in 2011-2012. These players have been able to carry forward this legacy. If you look at the success in all three formats of the game in the last 12 years, the time after we left has been unprecedented. Very easily and clearly we are always at number one or two in many rankings. It is great to go abroad and win, given the kind of cricket we play and the skill of the players.’
Dravid hoped that Team India will continue to achieve success in the coming years. He said, ‘I have no doubt that this generation of players led by players like Rohit and Suryakumar and in all formats of the game will continue to do the same in the future.’ Dravid said that Indian cricketers are now fearless and confident, they also have world-class infrastructure to advance their skills.