Kohli’s patchy shape and a beneath par strike-rate coming in at No. 3 has been puzzled again and again and for the umpteenth time, Dravid got here to the previous India captain’s defence.
“He’s (Kohli) also coming back after a break, it’s nice to see that he’s come back fresh, looking forward to playing all these games. He got time to spend in the middle. Hopefully he will kick on from here on and have a good tournament,” Dravid mentioned forward of the Asia Cup Super 4s recreation towards Pakistan.
But he as soon as once more attempted to claim that Kohli’s shape is least of his issues and likewise recommended other people to not be obsessed about one specific participant’s numbers.
“For us, it’s not really about how many runs he makes. Especially with Virat, people get a little bit obsessed with his statistics and numbers. For us, it’s really not about that,” ‘The Wall’ mentioned.
“It’s about the contributions he makes at different phases of the game. It doesn’t have to be in 50s or 100s or a stat for us, even a small contribution makes a lot for us in T20s. He’s really keen on putting on good performances,” Dravid mentioned.
Non-Committal on Ravindra Jadeja knee harm
His lead spin bowling all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja has been dominated out of Asia Cup and could also be set to be out of World T20 as he’s set to go through a knee surgical treatment which might rule him out for indefinite duration.
However as the pinnacle trainer has been for different avid gamers additionally, he remained in large part non-committal on Jadeja.
“Jadeja obviously has injured his knee. He’s under the care of the medical team, seeing the experts. The World Cup is a fair way away. We don’t want to jump to any conclusions, rule him out or rule him in,” Dravid mentioned in his inimitable taste.
“People get injured, a lot depends on the rehab, severity of the injury. I don’t want to rule him out, make too many comments until I have a much clearer picture or better idea especially when the World Cup is six-seven weeks away now,” the pinnacle trainer mentioned, looking to stay the seriousness of harm underneath wraps.
Indian pacers are efficient now not glamorous
Pakistan’s tempo batteries through the years have won a large number of traction however Dravid is excited along with his bunch which he feels is valuable to the core.
“Of course, they (Pakistan) are a very good bowling side, but we too did well to restrict them to 147. You are judged by the results you produce,” Dravid mentioned prior to the conflict with arch-rivals.
“I would say in numbers they would have hit 145kph, 147kph, we may have been in the 135-125kph mark, swing and or no swing but the bowling performance of our fast bowlers was also pretty good.
“I’m assured that we have got a excellent bowling assault as smartly that produces effects, it is probably not as…” Dravid stopped, refraining from using a word.
“I sought after to make use of a phrase however I will’t use that phrase (right here). It’s popping out of thoughts however I will’t use it right here,” he said, leaving everyone in splits.
“It’s a 4 letter that begins with s, however it is k,” he added.
Avesh a bit under the weather
Dravid however did indicate that out of form pacer Avesh KHan is a bit under the weather and could miss Sunday’s game.
“Avesh is feeling underneath the elements, fever and stuff, medical doctors managing him. Hopefully it is not critical, k for the next day to come or later a part of the event,” Dravid said.
Rishabh Pant is no longer first-choice keeper
For the T20 World Cup, Dravid said that Rishabh Pant isnt the first choice keeper as there won’t be any pecking order for him and Dinesh Karthik.
The surprise package in their match against Pakistan was omission of Pant as the Rohit Sharma-led side preferred the experienced glovesman in Dinesh Karthik ahead of the flamboyant left-hander.
“There’s no first selection wicketkeeper within the facet… We play in line with the prerequisites, state of affairs, opposition and what we really feel is the most productive XI.
“There’s no such a thing as first choice playing XI for every single condition. That will vary. On that day against Pakistan, we felt Dinesh was the right choice for us.
But he conceded that it was difficult to leave out Pant.
“It’s very tricky to go away out someone, however we’re considering selecting the most productive XI. We have a bit of little bit of squad tradition in our facet who imagine that we have got an excellent squad of XV and someone can play,” he mentioned.
