Wall won’t give in to pressure

LONDON: It may not have won an ICC title in 10 years but India head coach Rahul Dravid on Monday insisted that his team is not feeling any pressure going into the World Test Championship (WTC) final against Australia.

The former India captain said that it would be nice to win the trophy as it is something his team has worked towards over the last two years. India lost the inaugural WTC final to New Zealand in 2021 and has been guilty of faltering in knockout matches.

“No, not at all. I mean we do not feel any pressure in terms of trying to win an ICC trophy. Of course, it would be nice to do it. It would be certainly nice to be able to win an ICC tournament. But also in the context of things, you look at this and you see that this is the culmination of two years of work,” said Dravid at a press conference.

“It is a culmination of a lot of success that gets you here. So, there is a lot of positives to take from that, to see where you stand on the table. Winning series in Australia, drawing series here, being very competitive everywhere that this team has played in the world over the last five or six years.

“Those are things that will never change just because you have or you do not have an ICC trophy. That is really the bigger picture,” added Dravid.

Ajinkya Rahane is set to play his first Test in 18 months and a failure in the match could potentially be career-ending. Dravid had a word of advice for the experienced batter.

“Firstly it is good to have him. We have had a few injuries which have probably led to him having the opportunity to come back into the squad. Great for us to have someone of his quality back. He obviously brings a lot of that experience, he brings proven performance in overseas conditions. Even in England, he has played some terrific innings for us.

“He brings terrific catching in the slips as well to the group. He just brings his personality to the group as well which is really important. He has led the team to considerable success. And again, I would not want him to approach this as just a one-off.”

Dravid said that the 82-Test veteran might go on to play many more five-day matches for the country. “Sometimes you get dropped from teams and you make a comeback and you can play for as long as you are playing well and as long as you are performing. It is not written in stone or rule that you only get one match. He puts in a good performance, really shows what he has got.

“Who knows, even when people come back from injury, you never know what can happen. So again, from my point of view, it is not really only about this match. Yes, this match is important but then in the larger context of things, there is a lot of cricket to be played further down the road as well,” Dravid said.

The Oval will host its first-ever Test in June and the conditions might not be as batting-friendly as they are later in the English summer. However, Dravid is not reading too much into it.

“We just have to react to what we see in terms of the conditions and how it plays out in the middle. And hopefully, we have the resources and the ability to deal with whatever comes in front of us.”