Without giving too much away, India head coach Rahul Dravid hinted at the potential of playing wrist spinner Kuldeep Yadav in the Caribbean leg of the T20 World Cup, which begins with a Super 8 match against Afghanistan on June 20, Thursday. Given the pace-friendly circumstances, India did not play Kuldeep or Yuzvendra Chahal in the tournament’s USA leg. However, the conditions are different in the Caribbean, where wrist spinners have already made an effect, with Australian spinner Adam Zampa as an example.
It’s tough to leave anyone out. I mean all the four guys that we left out in those games, to be honest, are all quality players. It’s just that the conditions and what we felt was the requirement in that particular venue made us go with that particular combination where we felt that there wasn’t a huge role for spin and it was more of pace more of kind of conditions, Dravid said ahead of the Afghanistan encounter.
And we also wanted to ensure that we had the depth on that tricky kind of wicket. So that’s what we went there with. You know, it might be different here. Without giving too much away, certainly. You know, it might be slightly different here. That you might need an extra spinner and then someone like Kuldeep or Yuzi can come into play. They become a very good factor for us, Dravid expressed.
Men in Blue were accused of being too conservative in their approach during the previous two T20 World Cups, but Dravid believes the team has reversed the tide on that front. We have been to be able to push the needle forward in terms of our batting there. Sometimes in certain conditions, you just have to be mindful of conditions also. Sometimes we just get carried away with pushing the needle forward in T20 cricket, Dravid further added.
Cricket is a very condition-specific game. It’s one of the only sports left where the surface makes such an impact on the actual skill levels, the actual performance levels, and what is an acceptable performance level.
It’s one sport that we play that where the surface makes a huge difference and it has to be brought into consideration at all times. And I think we saw that in the US that had to be brought into consideration not only for us but for other teams as well. We’ve had a couple of days of really good practice. We are ready, we rested, and we feel we are prepared, Dravid concluded.
