Team India on Sunday (June 11) suffered a humiliating 209-run defeat at the hands of Australia in the ICC World Test Championship (WTC) 2023 Final at The Oval.
The Rohit Sharma-led side was outplayed by Australia from the first day itself. India opted to bowl first in overcast conditions but failed to make the most of it.
Australia rode on centuries from Travis Head (163) and Steve Smith (121) to pile up 469 in their first essay. In response, India’s innings folded for 296 as they conceded a healthy lead of 173 runs.
Australia declared their second innings at 270/8 to set a huge target of 444. However, Indian batting once again crumbled under pressure and got bowled out for 234 in the final innings.
After the game, India head coach Rahul Dravid interacted with Sourav Ganguly and Harbhajan Singh, who performed commentary duties in the WTC final.
Speaking on Star Sports, Ganguly enquired Dravid about the decision to bowl first in the marquee clash.
In reply, the coach said: "We decided to bowl first in the Test match because the conditions were overcast and there was quite a lot of grass on the pitch."
"So, we thought that it would get easier to bat on later in the pitch and that was the same case here also. Most teams in recent times have opted to field first in England. We thought that it was a great decision when Aussies were at 70/3 and then we leaked a lot of runs in the next two sessions. Even if we would have gotten them out by 300, we would have been in the game. We could have had a chance in the fourth innings," he explained.
Dravid admitted that their bowling performance after winning the toss wasn’t up to the mark.
"We had hoped that however behind we were, we could've shown more fight but we knew we needed exceptional performances. It was not a 469-run wicket. We gave away a lot of runs -- bowling was disappointing. We played some poor shots yesterday," he said.
The result also meant India's underwhelming record in ICC events continued, with their last victory coming way back in 2013.
When asked about the ICC trophy drought, Dravid said: "You have a good point that we haven't won a major ICC trophy since 2013. We are getting close. We are getting to the semifinals, 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 but we are getting close," he further stated.
Ganguly highlighted the poor performance of India’s top-order batter in recent times and their lack of success in crucial games.
To which, Dravid replied: "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.”
"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.”
"Every match is important and you need to win every match. 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 felt good when we piled up runs," he added.
Harbhajan questioned India’s tactics of preparing rank turners at home, citing that such Test wins give them "fake confidence."
Reacting to it, the Indian head coach 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. When you play in conditions like this, they can go variably. I agree that some wickets in India were difficult."
(With PTI Inputs)
