"Want players to make match-winning contributions": Rahul Dravid ahead of India's SA tour
Dec 06, 2023
New Delhi [India], December 6 : Ahead of India's tour of South Africa, 'Men in Blue' head coach Rahul Dravid asked his side to give a match-winning contribution in the upcoming series.
While speaking to Star Sports, Dravid said that the stats will show that batting at South African pitches will be tough. He named 'Centurion and Johannesburg' which will be the toughest places to bat.
The India head coach added that every batter has a game plan on how they want to go.
"So, it is a challenging place to bat; the statistics will tell you that. It is one of the most difficult places to bat in, especially up here in Centurion and Johannesburg. The wickets do tend to do a bit, and they tend to get up and down as well. Every one of the batsmen will have a game plan as to how they want to go, as long as they are clear about it and they commit to it and are practising towards that, that's fine," Dravid said.
The 50-year-old further added that they don't expect every cricketer to play the same way in the upcoming tour.
"We don't expect everyone to play in the same way. We want them to be very clear about what works for them, and then be able to execute that. The boys, once they get out there, a lot of it is mental, and I guess, you know, we try and stress on the fact that if we do get going if we get the opportunity to get set, they try to make it a match-winning contribution," Dravid added.
The all-format tour of South Africa will kickstart from December 10 with a three-match T20I series which will go on till December 14. From December 17, the ODI leg of the white-ball series will start which will conclude on September 21.
India's squad for Tests: Rohit Sharma (C), Shubman Gill, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Ishan Kishan (wk), KL Rahul (Wk), Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Shardul Thakur, Mohd. Siraj, Mukesh Kumar, Mohd. Shami*, Jasprit Bumrah (VC), Prasidh Krishna.
India's squad for 3 T20Is: Yashasvi Jaiswal, Shubman Gill, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Tilak Varma, Suryakumar Yadav (C), Rinku Singh, Shreyas Iyer, Ishan Kishan (Wk), Jitesh Sharma (Wk), Ravindra Jadeja (VC), Washington Sundar, Ravi Bishnoi, Kuldeep Yadav, Arshdeep Singh, Mohd. Siraj, Mukesh Kumar, Deepak Chahar.
India's squad for 3 ODIs: Ruturaj Gaikwad, Sai Sudharsan, Tilak Varma, Rajat Patidar, Rinku Singh, Shreyas Iyer, KL Rahul (C) (Wk), Sanju Samson (Wk), Axar Patel, Washington Sundar, Kuldeep Yadav, Yuzvendra Chahal, Mukesh Kumar, Avesh Khan, Arshdeep Singh, Deepak Chahar.
