Bumrah a big loss but an opportunity for someone else to stand up: Rahul Dravid after IND-SA T20 series
India head coach Rahul Dravid, Tuesday, admitted that pace spearhead Jasprit Bumrah’s absence in the upcoming T20 World Cup in Australia will be a blow for his team.
“Bumrah’s absence is a big loss for us. He has been a great player but it happens,” said Dravid in the post-match interaction after South Africa beat India 49 runs in the third T20.
“But this is also an opportunity for someone else to stand up. We’ll miss him of course,” the 49-year-old outlined.
While India won the T20 series a margin of 2-1, the visitors eked out a thumping win in the final game of the series. But Dravid saw the positive side and said, it was good to get the right results in both series ( AUS & SA ).
“In this format, you need luck, things to go your way, especially in close games. We didn’t have that in the Asia Cup but had some luck during the Australia series,” said Dravid.
The Indian head coach also spoke about Dinesh Karthik being promoted up the batting order and said, “We were able to rotate the squad a bit, pleased with how it’s gone overall. We made a decision after the last T20 WC, sat down with Rohit, and made a conscious effort to be positive. Today was an opportunity to give guys who haven’t had much batting to get time.”
The @DineshKarthik show 💥💥46 runs21 balls4 Fours and as many Sixes!
Talk about a quick-fire knock.
Live – https://t.co/dpI1gl5uwA #INDvSA @mastercardindia pic.twitter.com/6H4AyfdSiz
— BCCI (@BCCI) October 4, 2022
“It is tough on guys like DK and Pant who don’t get too many hits in the middle. With both of them could’ve continued, 4-5 overs more and it could’ve been a lot closer. I felt they were batting really well at movement,” he concluded.
Brief Scores: South Africa: 227/3 in 20 Overs (Rilee Rossouw 100 not out, Quinton de Kock 68; Umesh Yadav 1/34, Deepak Chahar 1/48)
South Africa win the third & final T20I of the series.
But it’s #TeamIndia who clinch the series 2⃣-1⃣. 👏 👏
Scorecard ➡️ https://t.co/dpI1gl5uwA#INDvSA pic.twitter.com/S5GTIqFAPQ
— BCCI (@BCCI) October 4, 2022
India: 178 all out in 18.3 overs (Dinesh Karthik 46, Deepak Chahar 31; Dwaine Pretorius 3/26)