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Curated by: Aakash Biswas
Last update: March 10, 2024, 20:00 IST
Dharmsala (Dharamsala), India
Rahul Dravid addresses team India after 4-1 series win
Addressing the team in the dressing room, Dravid stressed the importance of staying together and functioning as a unit to succeed in the tough world of Test cricket.
After India’s tremendous victory over England in Dharamsala, coach Rahul Dravid addressed the team in the dressing room and praised the players for setting a great example of teamwork. After losing 1-0 in the series, Rohit Sharma & Co. bounced back and won four consecutive matches to outwit the visitors. While India extended their unbeaten run in Tests at home, it was England’s first loss in a series since Ben Stokes and Brendon McCullum took over as captain and coach of the Test team.
Addressing the team in the dressing room, Dravid stressed the importance of staying together and functioning as a unit to succeed in the tough world of Test cricket.
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“Series like this have to be earned and this is hard. Test cricket is sometimes difficult. It’s difficult in terms of your ability. It’s hard physically, as you’ve seen, it’s hard mentally. But in the end there is great satisfaction. The satisfaction that comes from winning a series like this, coming from one behind to be able to win four. I think it’s just phenomenal,” Dravid said.
India missed the services of key players like Virat Kohli, Mohammed Shami while players like KL Rahul and Shreyas Iyer were ruled out due to injuries. However, the presenters found heroes in some young names on the series. The home team debuted five players (Rajat Paitidar, Dhruv Jurel, Devdutt Padikkal, Sarfaraz Khan and Akash Deep) in the main series.
The Indian coach was happy after some of those young names emerged with great success from the series.
“Many of you young people, especially those coming to this group, will need each other to be successful. Whether you are a batsman, a bowler or whatever you are, your success is linked to the success of other people.
“You are all committed to each other’s success. And that’s really important going forward. It’s not about your success, it’s about how you can help other people succeed, which will also help you succeed,” she said.
The 51-year-old was delighted to see the players find ways to turn the tide whenever they came under pressure.
“There were times in the series where we were really challenged and pushed and found a way to bounce back, which speaks to the skills we have, the resilience we have, the character we have. There were many times in this series that the games could have gone in either direction. But we always found people in this locker room who stepped up and changed the game in our own way. And that was fantastic,” added the coach.
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Dravid also said that the team also did well to maximize advantageous positions.
“So, not only do you need to win the games, but you also have to defend yourself, which we did very well. But you also have to win games when you are ahead and you don’t let the opponent recover in any situation,” he stated.
“The former India captain praised the team for emerging winners from a long and grueling series against quality opposition. We also talked about this at the beginning of the series. Regardless of whether we win or lose, this will teach us a lot – a five-match Test series. “You are going to go through a lot of ups and downs.”
“It’s a long series, they’re going to test you. And it was going to teach us a lot about ourselves as players or some as a team, and a lot about ourselves and we have overcome it exceptionally with great success and faced challenges both on and off the field.”
(With contributions from the agency)
