ADELAIDE, Nov 1: If this Men’s T20 World Cup has proved anything, then it is that no team can be taken lightly, feels India head coach Rahul Dravid ahead of India’s Super 12 clash against Bangladesh in Group 2 of Men’s T20 World Cup at Adelaide Oval on Wednesday.
The chance of not being complacent at all, especially against Bangladesh, is something Dravid himself knows a thing or two about. In the 2007 ODI World Cup in the West Indies, when Dravid was the captain of the Indian team, Bangladesh had stunned India by five wickets in the Group B match at Trinidad.
“I think we respect them a lot. They’re a very good team. This format and this World Cup has really shown us that honestly you can’t take any team lightly. Ireland showed that against England. We’ve seen enough games in this competition.”
“The fact that it is already such a short format. 20 overs is such a short format of the game. The margins of victory and defeat sometimes even if they’re 12 runs, 15 runs, it’s actually just two hits. It’s two hits one way or the other, and actually that’s the game,” said Dravid in the pre-match press conference.
“So it is already a shortened sort of rushed, noisy format, but it’s very difficult to sometimes say who’s a clear favourite in some of these games. On top of that, I think these conditions have actually levelled the playing field to a large extent because the boundaries are certainly bigger, and some of those big hits which you sometimes expect in the subcontinent to just go for six and you just know that I’ll be able to make up those runs later on, it’s not happening that easily.”
“People are getting out. It’s really been a fantastic tournament from that perspective. Apart from the weather, I think it’s been a terrific tournament in terms of just the nature of the games. No, we certainly don’t take Bangladesh lightly. Our preparation, our planning will be as meticulous as it was against South Africa at Perth. No different,” added Dravid.
“In this format, every wicket is different. That’s one of the things, again, this tournament has shown playing in different parts of Australia. The grounds are so different. Certainly playing in Perth the other night where the boundaries were 80 yards. We come here, and it’s certainly different.”
“The kind of shots you’ll play here will be very different to the kind of shots you’ll play at Perth. You’ll have to bowl different kind of balls, which I think is a unique nature of playing this tournament in this country, that almost game-to-game you’re having to adapt your tactics, your strategies to different conditions. I think that’s the uniqueness of that,” observed Dravid. (IANS)
