Necessary to prepare pitches that produce results: Dravid

AHMEDABAD: India head coach Rahul Dravid does not regret one bit playing the ongoing Test series against Australia on spin-friendly tracks as the World Test Championship (WTC) points are at a premium and most countries are preparing result-oriented pitches.

While India leads Australia 2-1 in the four-match series, the “poor” rating for the Indore track by ICC match referee Chris Broad has once again raised questions about playing on rank turners, where each of the matches so far in this series have finished inside three days.

“I will not go too much into it. The match referee is entitled to share his opinion. It does not really matter if I agree with his reading or not. It does not matter what I think. But sometimes, with WTC points at stake, you tend to play on wickets (pitches) that produce results,” Dravid, who was straightforward in his defence, said.

Dravid did not forget to mention that data analysis of tracks prepared by home teams in last few years has shown that the 22-yard strips in most nations have been challenging. “It can happen, not only in India but [also] across the world. If you see, sometimes, it is difficult to get that balance perfectly right for everyone and that can happen not only here but in other places as well,” added the chief coach.

Dravid gave a bit of an idea as to what was the trigger behind asking for these kinds of raging turners. It was the 2021 Test match against New Zealand in Kanpur, where India could not pick up nine wickets on the final day for a win.

“There is a huge premium on results. If you draw a match like we did in Kanpur, it sets you back in a home game,” Dravid stated. “We have played on some challenging wickets (pitches) when we have gone overseas. We played in South Africa recently (2022), where spinners were completely taken out of the game,” he said.

“And everyone wants to produce wickets (pitches) where eventually one wants results. You will probably prepare wickets (pitches) where the ball holds a bit more sway over the bat and that is necessary and part of the game.”

‘Need to be realistic with batters’ performances’

The India top-order batters have not been at their best in the series thus far, with skipper Rohit Sharma being the only centurion. Talking about India’s inconsistent batting shows, Dravid said: “You need to be realistic as to what is a good performance on these challenging wickets (pitches). Not only here but if you look at the last three to four years, wickets (pitches) have generally got challenging everywhere.

“So, you need to be realistic what the bench-marks are now, what the standards are on these kinds of surfaces. Just one good performance can change the match. We saw that with Rohit’s performance (in Nagpur) and we have seen that.”