Two anticipated occasions occurred on the India’s pre-game press convention in South Africa. The absence of Virat Kohli and the flexibility of Rahul Dravid to wriggle out of a good spot. In a departure from the conventions of pre-Test media interactions the place the captain often attends with the coach, Kohli selected to not attend.
Perhaps, as a result of the final time he fronted up the media, he had had his say towards Sourav Ganguly led BCCI over the way in which he was dethroned from the ODI captaincy, and since there was no official response but from the board, it will have been extra of the identical. Last time round, he was urging the media supervisor, who was intent on ending the convention, to hold on and skim out questions from the chat window on the Zoom.
Unsurprisingly, Dravid didn’t chew the query about his function within the Kohli vs Ganguly saga.
“To be honest that’s the role of the selectors and I am not going to get into conversations that I might or might not have had,” when requested if he had given his opinion on change of white ball captaincy. “It’s not the place and the time to be doing that and discussing that. And what internal conversations I have had is certainly not going to come out in the media and I am not going to start telling people what conversations I have had.”
💬 💬 We’ve acquired some good high quality follow over the week.
Head Coach Rahul Dravid speaks concerning the #TeamIndia’s preparation within the lead as much as the primary #SAvIND Test. pic.twitter.com/bCjXbveV0I
— BCCI (@BCCI) December 25, 2021
Team choice could possibly be difficult, Ajinkya Rahane or Shreyas Iyer to begin with. Also, with out Ravindra Jadeja, India must strike the fitting stability, 5 bowlers or an additional batsman to be exact. Dravid’s solutions aren’t difficult. He spoke about Rahane coaching properly. As regards to group mixture, he mentioned: “In terms of picking and dropping players, we have to make decisions. I don’t expect everyone not to be disappointed. We are very clear within our group what kind of team combination we want to play with. I would like to keep it that way.”
The former India captain as soon as once more turned to the team-effort issue, when he was requested about Cheteshwar Pujara’s lean run. “These kinds of series are won by team performances. It’s not right to focus on an individual name.”
pic.twitter.com/Nam8xGhOxc
— BCCI (@BCCI) December 25, 2021
Dravid has sat by means of extra tense media interactions throughout his captaincy, dealing with controversies that has ranged from Ganguly vs Greg Chappell, his declaration with Sachin Tendulkar simply in need of a double hundred, world cup debacle, choices at toss and no matter else that was the trend of the day. He would hardly reveal a lot, wouldn’t come remotely near biting any tempting apples from the reporters’ questions, and knew the right way to depart the metaphorical ball exterior off stump.
Only as soon as in 2004 in Pakistan, when a reporter had requested a query after a ODI whether or not the sport was fastened, did Dravid stir with: “Someone get this guy out of the room. It’s ridiculous. These sort of statements are just bad for the game.” Inzamam Ul Haq too was requested the identical query and had responded with an extended offended stare and a crisp “Shut up!”.
A query about Kohli’s management in Tests popped up and Dravid eased into a canopy drive.
“Virat as a leader, as a captain, he’s been fantastic. We are certainly looking to him to carry that forward and really pushing and challenging this team. The Test team; we want to keep improving, we want to get better as a group and Virat plays a huge role in that, in taking the Test team forward. He is one of those players who loves Test cricket, who looks forward to Test cricket. Hopefully he has a great series and that will benefit the team as well,” Dravid mentioned.
.@imVkohli’s transformation 👏Excitement about SA problem 👌Initial few months as Head Coach ☺️
Rahul Dravid discusses all of it as #TeamIndia gear up for the primary #SAvIND Test in Centurion. 👍 👍
Watch the total interview 🎥 🔽https://t.co/2H0FlKQG7q pic.twitter.com/vrwqz5uQA8
— BCCI (@BCCI) December 25, 2021
In a bcci.television interview a few days in the past, the pinnacle coach had spoken about supporting Kohli alongside the way in which. “Being in part of the environment and supporting him (Kohli) along the way is something I’m looking forward to.”
For India, the rapid objective could be to win the collection. In the grand scheme of issues, the World Test Championship factors are there to be collected as properly. Dravid mentioned as a lot. “From a Test team’s perspective, there are series to win and it obviously starts with this one. It’s really an important series, a challenge away from home. We look forward to play some good cricket. Obviously in the larger scheme of things, the World Test Championship points, that’s a goal as well.”
Going by the coaching session video clips posted on the BCCI’s web site, the temper within the camp appears to be like fairly jovial. But it received’t be straightforward in South Africa, even in Anrich Nortje’s absence.
“It’s a great challenge. (Also), it’s a great opportunity for anyone, whether you are in-form or out-of-form. It’s always something that you look forward to as a batsman. A lot of your career is defined by those kinds of performances,” mentioned Dravid, including: “It does take a little bit of time to get used to the conditions, especially here at Centurion. Hopefully they would be able to adapt quickly.”
As he identified, India would stay up for begin properly. “Starting well is very important. It’s not the be-all and end-all of everything. It’s a three-Test series. But in a three-Test series, it’s nice to be able to start well.”
