Since MS Dhoni's team won the Champions Trophy in 2013, India has not claimed an International Cricket Council (ICC) trophy. As India prepares to face Australia in the eagerly anticipated World Test Championship (WTC 2023) final, which will begin on June 7 in London, all eyes will be on Rohit Sharma's team.
At the Oval in London, India and Australia square off in the World Test Championship final. Team India led by Virat Kohli, was defeated by New Zealand in the inaugural WTC final in Southampton in 2021.
Rahul Dravid, the head coach, asserted that despite India's title drought in the run-up to the summit match, they are not under pressure.
"No, not at all. I mean we don't feel any pressure in terms of trying to win an ICC trophy. Of course, it would be nice to do it. It would be certainly nice to be able to win an ICC tournament. But also in the context of things, you look at this and you see this is the culmination of two years of work.
It's a culmination of a lot of success that gets you here. So there are a lot of positives to take from that to see where you stand on the table. Winning series in Australia, drawing series here, and being very competitive everywhere that this team has played in the world over the last five or six years.
I think those are things that will never change just because you have or you don't have an ICC trophy. That's the bigger picture," Dravid was quoted as saying by PTI.
Dravid also said that veteran batter Ajinkya Rahane must not look at this as a one-off game and instead focus on doing well from here on.
"Firstly it's good to have him. We've had a few injuries which have probably led to him having the opportunity to come back into the squad. Great for us to have someone of his quality back. He brings a lot of that experience, he brings proven performance in overseas conditions. Even in England, he's played some terrific innings for us.
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"Sometimes you get dropped from teams and you make a comeback and you can play for as long as you're playing well and as long as you're performing. It's not written in stone or a rule that you only get one match. He puts in a good performance, really shows what he's got. From my point of view, it's not only about this match. Yes this match is important but then in the larger context of things there's a lot of cricket to be played further down the road as well," he said.
The Indian head coach Dravid was also asked about the experience Cheteshwar Pujara will bring as he has been scoring tons of runs in English county championship for Sussex.
"We've had conversations with Pujara - about captaincy, about obviously batting, but also he leads Sussex. So he's also got a good handle on things in terms of the kind of tactics and the strategy that's used by a lot of the county bowlers that he's played with.
So we've had some conversations and discussions obviously with him in and around that and we'll see how we can maybe incorporate some of that. Doesn't drastically change some of the basics of the game. They always remain the same," said Dravid.
The match will begin on June 7 and has a reserve day as well on June 12.
(PTI inputs)
