Their upcoming T20 World Cup final against South Africa at the Kensington Oval, Bridgetown in Barbados is a game that India’s head coach Rahul Dravid has emphasized about adapting to different pitches by using their experiences on this ground. Afghanistan played india in the Super 8 opener and it was played on a tough barbados wicket where India managed to post a challenging total of 181 runs.
The Indian coach also saw the benefits of his players getting familiar with the pitch in Barbados.
“Yeah, I mean, just the fact that we’ve played a game in Barbados is nice. It’s nice that we have that familiarity of having played on that surface in the past,” PTI quoted Rahul Dravid as telling reporters before the match. Nevertheless, he warned them not to assume similar playing conditions by adding “But again, I think it’s very hard to… We’re not going to get exactly the same wicket that we got last time. I mean, it can be different, right?”
This team’s ability to adapt has been one of its key strengths throughout this event. In places like St Lucia, New York and Barbados Rahul Dravid praised these boys’ ability to quickly adjust with everything around them.
“I think what’s really important is that we’ve done really well as a group” This whole tournament we have shown the ability to adapt, recognize what is a good score; We played very differently in New York and then we played in St Lucia and then even when I thought that the game was quite slow in Barbados,” stated Rahul Dravid.
”I’m just hoping that whatever we come up against; we will have an understanding of how things are outside there so as to play accordingly which has been our case for our last three games.” remarked Rahul Dravid
That they posted 171 runs on a low-bounce surface at Guyana during their semi-final shows India’s expertise at making healthy totals on difficult tracks. They will face South Africa, who have broken their former long-standing jinx in the semifinals of the world cup.
India’s ability to adapt to different scenarios and past performance have set the stage for an intriguing contest between them and South Africa in the next game.