India head coach Rahul Dravid spoke about where the team lost in the first Test against England. He said they fell short of 70 runs with the bat in the first innings at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium in Hyderabad.
The start of the series was not favorable for India as they suffered a disappointing 28-run defeat. They had the game under control the first two days but after that, they let it go as England dominated days 3 and 4 to win the game.
India outscored England by 246 runs in the first innings. After that, they got it right with the bat as they added 436 runs in reply and took a 190-run lead in the first innings. But after that nothing went right in the game.
England first put an end to the deficit and then set a target of 231 runs, thanks to the brilliance of Ollie Pope, who scored 196 runs. So with the bat, it was a horrible show with the bat as they lost wickets regularly, giving away 7 wickets to Tom Hartley. India were bowled out for 202 runs and lost 1-0 in the series.
Rahul Dravid admitted that India did not take advantage of good batting conditions in the first innings. He said that the batsmen could not convert the openings and no batsman in the team made a big hundred for them.
Rahul Dravid further admitted that it was not easy for them to chase 230 runs in the second innings. Speaking to reporters at the press conference, he explained:
“I thought we probably left 70 runs on the board in the first innings. You know, I think in our first innings, when the conditions were pretty good for batting on the second day, I thought about the kind of situations we got ourselves into, some good starts and we didn’t really take advantage. We didn’t get a hundred, you know, we didn’t get anyone to get a hundred grand for us.
“So somehow, in India, I felt we left those 70, 80 runs in the cabin in the first innings. The second inning will always be a challenge. It’s one of those things that, you know, is difficult. It’s not easy to chase 230 or it’s not done very often.”
Many players are quite young – Rahul Dravid
Rahul Dravid further spoke about the poor outings of Shubman Gill and Shreyas Iyer, saying that they are young and mainly play white-ball cricket. He shows confidence in the duo and says that they will learn and are improving.
Rahul Dravid pointed out that the pitches have also been challenging, which has not allowed the young batsmen to adapt. He believes they have the ability and will come back strong. He elaborated:
“A lot of players are quite young, in the sense that a lot of these guys play a lot of white-ball cricket and maybe don’t have much time to play a lot of first-class cricket like Bueno either. “So they’re learning and I think they’re getting there.
“To be fair, there has also been challenging terrain in recent years. And it’s been a challenge for some of our young hitters to adapt. But they have the skill and the ability, and they didn’t just come here; “They have come here by scoring a lot of runs in domestic cricket and doing well in A-team cricket. So, you know, they are being chosen on merit.”
India would now hope to make a comeback in the second game. The match between the teams will be played on February 3 in Vizag.