Head coach Rahul Dravid emphasised on Indian team focusing on the next game rather than thinking about who they are going to face in the final or semi-final of the ongoing World Cup ahead of their clash against South Africa. The Indian team qualified for the semi-final after winning their seventh consecutive victory in the tournament. South Africa became the second team to take one of the three spots available. Ahead of the game, Dravid pointed out that the reason for Indian team playing a good brand of cricket comes down to them focusing on their own game rather than looking at who they are up against.
“Our focus is the next match. We don’t think about the what we can or should do. The biggest thing is the next match. We have played 7 good matches, good cricket and that is because we haven’t thought ahead, or playing the finals or semi-finals. We are just thinking about the next match and who it is against. We are trying even not to think about who we are playing. You know, it’s all about us. It’s our preparation, our planning, and whether we can execute our skills. And I think everything that we are looking at, at this point of time is telling us that in every department we have executed our skills really, really well. And if we keep executing our skills, and if somebody outplays us and out beats us, then good luck. We shake their hand and walk away. But at the end of the day, focus has to be on us and not really worry about who we are coming up against,” Dravid said in the pre-match press conference.
One of the key reasons for India’s success in the past three games has been the exceptional performance of the pace trio of Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj and Mohammed Shami.
With nine wickets against Sri Lanka and seven wickets each against England and New Zealand, the pace trio’s performance in the early phase of the innings has allowed India to exercise control over the opposition.
But Dravid feels that their performance has overshadowed the spin duo of Ravindra Jadeja and Kuldeep Yadav.
Both spinners have helped India claim control in the middle innings but the opening spells from the pacers have kept their performance under the radar.
“Again, like you rightly said, because of how good our seamers have been and how fantastic it has been to watch them up front, The performances of people like Jaddu [Jadeja] and Kuldeep [Yadav] have probably gone slightly unnoticed. But I think his ability, and sometimes even having to bowl with a slightly wetter ball, because the ball has been slightly wet,” Dravid said.
“Just the kind of control that he’s given us through the middle, the way the control he’s given Rohit has been sensational. And just the areas he’s bowled as well, I think every metric point tells us that he’s up there with anyone in this tournament in terms of just the areas he’s been able to hit, the speeds he’s been able to bowl at. So really great all-around package for us, and someone who’s really had a fantastic tournament. A little bit maybe gone under the radar a bit,” Dravid added.
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