The Indian cricket team once again failed to win the ICC trophy as they lost the WTC final to Australia which was played at The Oval, London by a big margin of 209 runs. This was the second consecutive WTC final which was played by India and history repeated itself as India ended up on the losing side once again. In the first WTC final, India lost the match to the New Zealand cricket team.
Batting first, Australia put up a big total of 469 runs on the score board in their first innings but the Indian batting fumbled and they could manage only 296 in their first innings. The Australians once again batted brilliantly and declared their second innings at the score of 270/8, giving a target of 444 runs to the Indian team for winning the match.
Considering the poor batting performance of the Indian team in the first innings, not many expected them to win the match and the whole Indian cricket team got out at the score of 234.
After the match, the Indian head coach Rahul Dravid interacted with the media and he was asked whether he was happy with the preparation of team India for the WTC final. All the Indian cricketers except Cheteshwar Pujara were playing the IPL 2023 for almost two months and they reached England less than 2 weeks before the finale. On the other hand, Cheteshwar Pujara was in England for the last two months as he was playing county cricket and a lot was expected from him as well but he failed to perform in the important match.
In response to the question, Rahul Dravid stated that he can never be happy with the preparation as a coach of the team but the reality is that the schedules are very tight and we have to accept this reality. He added that a team can be better prepared for an international game if they reach 3 weeks before the game starts.
Rahul Dravid who was visibly disappointed said that they didn’t have so much time as the situation didn’t allow it and he is not making any complaints or excuses, he just wants to congratulate the Aussies for playing better than the Indian team on all the 5 days.
He concludes by saying that they need to look at themselves and see how they can improve further.
One more chance of winning the ICC trophy is over and we need to wait more now.