'Because we lost few games, doesn't mean we're a terrible team'- Rahul Dravid defends under-fire Team India
Rahul Dravid defends under-fire Team India after Asia Cup failure
The No. 1 ranked Indian team entered the Asia Cup 2022 edition -- being played in the shortest format as a dress rehearsal for the T20 World Cup -- as favourites and were expected to win the trophy for the third time in a row. Despite topping their group, India lost their opening two games in the Super Four round and bowed out of the multi-nation tournament with Pakistan-Sri Lanka making it to the final.
Thrashing Afghanistan by 101 runs on Thursday evening (September 8), India settled for the penultimate spot in the Super Four by signing off from the tournament with a total of three wins and two defeats (versus Pakistan and Sri Lanka, respectively). Losing to arch-rivals Pakistan and Sri Lanka in the last over, India have been slammed left, right and centre with many taking a dig at their preparations for the upcoming ICC event. Nonetheless, head coach Rahul Dravid came in India's defence and has reckoned that 'losing a couple of games doesn't make them a terrible team.'
"Irrespective of whether we would have won those games, you got to keep things in perspective. In T20s, the margins are so small. It's not that because we won that tight game against Pakistan, everything becomes perfect. We lost a couple of games, which had gone down on a wicket that wasn't easy to defend," Dravid said in an interview on Star Sports.
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"We've taken the games down to the last ball. I'm not using that as an excuse. I still think we should have gotten over the line in at least one of those games. But we would have to still learn. We haven't been perfect. Just because we lost a couple of games, it doesn't mean we are a terrible team. We have been playing good cricket over the past 8-9 months."
"A couple of injuries and illnesses means your balance the team goes whack. In tournaments such as these, the margins become very small. The whole point is not to overreact, we can tend to go to extremes at some time. The kind of environment we want to create is very balanced," the former Indian captain-turned-coach added.
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India will now shift their focus to their twin T20I series, at home, versus Australia and South Africa, respectively. After that, the Rohit-led side will head to Australia in a bid to win their second T20 WC trophy.