India’s 0-3 loss in the ODI series against South Africa will serve as an “eye-opener”, feels head coach Rahul Dravid. The Proteas fielded a second-string bowling attack in Sunday’s inconsequential final ODI at Newlands in Cape Town, but still managed to win the game by 4 runs.
“This ODI series has certainly been a good eye-opener for us. The guys have not played a lot of one-day cricket of late. But luckily, we have got a fair bit of time before the (50-over) World Cup next year and there is going to be a lot of cricket from now on till then across all formats.
“So I think it’s going to be a good opportunity for us to really reflect and learn, and look to keep improving and getting better. We will get better and improve, no doubt about it,” Dravid said at the post-match news conference.
Stand-in captain KL Rahul admitted that poor shot selection was one of the key reasons behind India’s defeat. It’s time for some “hard conversations” after such a disastrous showing, Rahul stated.
“It’s quite obvious where we’ve gone wrong and it’s for everyone to see that our shot selection has been really poor,” he said at the post-match presentation ceremony.
“Even as bowlers, we weren’t hitting the good areas consistently. We didn’t put enough pressure on the opposition for long periods, so we ended up losing the series. We need to realise now how we can get better.
“What has always stood out for us is the energy and the passion, and the skill and understanding of the game. These kinds of mistakes will keep happening, but it’s important we learn and don’t keep repeating the mistakes.
“In the ODIs, we repeated some of the mistakes. So we need to look ourselves in the mirror and have some hard conversations,” Rahul emphasised.
India’s batting in the middle overs certainly left a lot to be desired. “We certainly could have done better in terms of our batting during the middle overs,” Dravid said, adding: “Some of the guys who help us balance the squad and give us those all-round options at Nos. 6, 7 and 8 are not here. Hopefully, when they come back, they will give us a little more depth which allows us to play in a slightly different style. But yeah, we didn’t play smart cricket.”