Not the first time, that India has reached the ICC WTC (World Test Championship) Final, Virat Kohli and co. qualified for the WTC finals in 2021 but were defeated by mighty New Zealand. Now all the eyes would be on head coach Rahul Dravid & skipper Rohit Sharma’s side who would be aiming to outclass the lethal Aussies on 7th June (*Wednesday) at The Oval. Rahul Dravid would be aware of the fact that they can’t take Aussies lightly even after winning BGT 2023 by 2-1.
Dravid has spoken ahead of the ICC WTC finals that the team feels ‘no pressure’ getting into the finals. Rahul Dravid believes that the display of hard work and dedication by the Indian team in the past years is a testament to their success reaching such unprecedented heights is a significant accomplishment in itself.
“Nice To Be Able To Win An ICC Tournament..” – Rahul Dravid
Rahul Dravid feels that whatever achievement Indian team has accomplished, is a confirmation of their devotion and perseverance towards the game, however he still believes that having an ICC trophy or title for the team will be a great accomplishment. Dravid was having an interaction with the reporters:
“Not at all, we don’t feel any pressure in terms of trying to win an ICC trophy. Of course, it would be nice to do it. Nice to be able to win an ICC trophy. This happens to be the WTC finals and it would be nice to get on the right side of the result,” said Rahul Dravid.
“But also in the context of things, you look at this and you see this is the culmination of 2 years of work, the culmination of a lot of success that gets you here. There are lot of positives to take from that, see where you stand in the table, winning series in Australia, drawing series here. Being very competitive, this team has played in the world over in the past 5-6 years. Those are things that will never change, just because, you don’t have ICC trophy. That’s really the bigger picture” he added.
Favorites Does Not Matter For Dravid
Many experts have picked Australia as their favorites, and believes that Australia might have an upper edge against India While Dravid believes that maybe the lack of hype might work in their favour.
“Whatever happens, it will happen over the next 5 days. Whatever happens before that, whatever is being said before and after doesn’t matter. Who is favorite, who is not… these are two good teams who are playing. ” said Rahul Dravid.
Dravid feels that both the teams are strong and assertive, thus it is hard to make any predictions or assumptions over it.
“Both teams have some good players. I have very good hope that if we play good cricket, if we can take 20 wickets and score runs, I have confidence that we can win this. Probably, not having hype is a good thing.” he added.