Unaware of India's Test record in Delhi, coach Rahul Dravid not discounting Australia ahead of 2nd Test
India coach Rahul Dravid
India has been on a winning spree in Tests at home since the past decade, more so that their record at the Arun Jaitley stadium in Delhi is terrific. India hasn’t lost a Test match at this venue since 1987 while Australia hasn’t won here since 1959. Now ahead of the second Test inthe ongoing Border-Gavaskar series, head coach Rahul Dravid addressed the media, and when asked about this terrificrecord at this very venue, Dravid played it down saying a) he wasn’t aware of it, and b) he doesn’t want India to be complacent after Nagpur win.
India had Australia on the mat in the first Test by beating them an innings and 132 runs inside three days. Rohit Sharma starred with the bat scoring his maiden BGT hundred, whereas, spin duo of Ravi Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja wreaked havoc with respective five-wicket hauls.
Having played against the mighty Aussies enough to make a judgement about their winning trait, Dravid said the team and players are wary of the touring team's ability tomakea comeback in the Test series, and that’s why they haven’t lowered their guards going forward.
"We won’t go too much into history. We want to stay in the moment. By history I mean leave 1987, we are not even resting on the laurels of the Nagpur Test win. That’s in the past. We have now come to Delhi. Whatever has happened has happened in Nagpur. We have to play good Test cricket here," Rahul said.
Dravid said India will continue to play good cricket, like how they didin Nagpur and will come all guns blazing when the second Test gets underway in Delhi on February 17th.
"They would also want to come back well. We know that if we want to win this series, we need to play tough and good cricket," Dravid told reporters in the pre-match presser in Delhi.
"After just one Test, our mindset doesn’t change because we know that in one Test, you can play very well. We also know that Australia will be looking to fight, they would have learned from the Nagpur Test. They will be keen on using the learnings from the Nagpur Test,” he added. "We will also look to continue the good cricket that we displayed in Nagpur.
Meanwhile, India is expected to field the winning XI in the second Test, whereas, we could see a sea of changed taking place in the Australian team that will be desperate for making a comeback in the series.
