Rahul Dravid: Need to be life like about batting in these difficult circumstances

“It could be one of the reasons, because yes, there is a huge premium on results,” Dravid stated on Tuesday. “You draw a game like Kanpur against New Zealand, where you take nine wickets in the second innings, you draw that game and that sets you back, in a home game.

“Every crew is getting outcomes at house or are placing in actually good performances at house, so there’s a premium on outcomes. You get 4 factors for a draw and also you get 12 for a win, so there’s a premium on that, there is no query about it.”

India began the four-Test series against Australia needing three wins to confirm a place in the WTC final. They won the first two Tests and lost the third, and all three were low-scoring matches played on pitches where the ball turned sharply from day one. There have only been three 200-plus totals in 11 innings, and only four batters – two from each side – have averages north of 30.

Under such circumstances, Dravid felt it was important for teams to have realistic expectations from their batters and set benchmarks accordingly.

“It’s actually about being life like about what is an effective efficiency on a number of the difficult wickets we’re enjoying on, not solely right here,” he said. “If you take a look at the final three-four years, all around the world I feel wickets have gotten much more difficult, not solely right here. So it’s a must to be life like about what the benchmarks are actually, what the requirements are.

“Just understanding that in these kinds of games, just one good performance can change the game. We saw that with Rohit [Sharma]’s performance [his century in the first Test in Nagpur], we’ve seen that many times over here. It’s just being realistic in our assessment of our batsmen, their averages and their numbers, and don’t really look so much into it.

“Just backing our batsmen to grasp that these are difficult circumstances they usually’re the identical for either side. And for them to have the ability to use it as a problem and a possibility to do one thing particular. It won’t essentially be about scoring massive double-hundreds, however you recognize there is likely to be scores of 50-60 or scores of 60-70 someplace is likely to be actually, actually good scores in some circumstances.”

“I feel he [Bharat] has stored fantastically for us,” Dravid said. “Even although it isn’t an enormous contribution he received 17 within the first innings [in Indore], received a pleasant contribution within the final Test match in Delhi, he performed properly and positively.

“So yeah, you need a little bit of luck sometimes in these situations, and he’s probably not had that, but no, I think he’s shaping up really well, he’s been playing really well. He’s keeping really nicely for us which is really important as well. I think you’ve just got to put, sometimes, the batting performances in perspective a little bit, and be a little bit understanding of it.”

“We just have to meet every condition separately,” Dravid stated. “These conditions might be very different to Indore last week, so I think everything’s on the table. We try and put together what we think is our best side and gives us the best chance to get 20 wickets and the most balanced side.

“We’ve seen additionally at instances that [the fast bowlers] have not bowled quite a bit, however the form of affect even a Siraj can have, choosing up that early wicket in Nagpur, Umesh’s spell the opposite day to select up three wickets. So regardless that generally it’s possible you’ll really feel the bowlers are usually not bowling quite a bit, simply having that stability and that potential at instances to return to a extra balanced assault is admittedly vital.

“The fact that when we are able to play three spinners we bat all the way up to 9, with Axar [Patel] or [R] Ashwin batting at 9 for us depending on left-right, it’s a pretty good depth we’ve got on the batting side of things. We have to weigh everything, weigh all the options and then decide.”