India head coach Rahul Dravid described a very specific goal that the Men in Blue had set for themselves while evaluating his team’s performance in the upcoming ICC World Cup 2023.
India is the only team remaining unbeaten in the 2023 World Cup after winning all nine of their group stage matches. In the inaugural World Cup semifinal on Wednesday, Men in Blue will play New Zealand at the Wankhede stadium in Mumbai.
India has been a strong force in the event, save for a few minor hiccups, including being 2/3 against Australia in Chennai and being reduced to 229/9 against England in Lucknow.
Dravid attributed the team’s accomplishments to a particular objective that served as inspiration.
“We presented a small test to ourselves before the World Cup. The fervor of our followers and thousands of supporters in nine distinct places. We genuinely wanted to give it our all and put on a fantastic show. And I believe the boys have done extremely well in responding to that,” Dravid said to Star Sports, as cited by ICC.
India was the only team participating in the World Cup to play its group matches at nine different locations. After their most recent performance in Bengaluru, where they crushed the Netherlands, Dravid was ecstatic.
Rahul Dravid commented, “We had six days off, so it was really nice to get a game before the semi-finals,” as he considered India’s triumphant journey through nine cities. We were fortunate enough to have what we needed, if only to clear the cobwebs. Our five batters are getting in there and getting their first hits. A few youngsters continuing and achieving some quite impressive hundreds.”
He also thought the team benefitted from the ball experimentation.
Additionally, having the ball allowed us to switch things up a bit and consider some other options that, ideally, we won’t need to look at after we scored that large. But we could need it,” the India coach remarked.
Our middle-order has performed admirably, in my opinion. Naturally, our top-order gets to bat frequently and has been very successful in scoring runs for the team. It makes sense that you would see the Sharmas and the Kohlis when you look at the leaderboard on the numbers.
They have been hitting incredibly well and magnificently. However, because you’re constantly playing under pressure, the middle order is essential,” he continue”They don’t always play every single game, sometimes they get to bat after 30 overs when the ball is soft, when the ball is older. The wicket is getting slower as well, and for them to bat the way they are, whether it is Shreyas [Iyer], whether it is KL [Rahul], you know even Jaddu [Ravindra Jadeja] or even Surya [Suryakumar Yadav] in the knock he got. It just gives us the confidence that we’ve got that experience, we’ve got the ability and we’ve also got them in form and playing really well getting into the semi-finals,” Dravid saidd.
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