India’s coach Rahul Dravid with Virat Kohli during a practice session
Credit: PTI Photo
Kolkata: The Indian team is playing such a brand of cricket that even the news of Hardik Pandya -- their crucial cog -- being ruled out of the remainder of the World Cup has done little to disturb the happy mindspace that the group is at the moment.
"We do have the option to call upon our wrong-footed, in-swinging menace (Virat Kohli)," said Dravid, only in jest, when pointed out about the lack of sixth bowling option in absence of Hardik. "The fact is that we will not be in a position to have a proper sixth (bowling) option. And with the crowd behind him (Kohli), I would back him for a couple of overs there on a few wickets. The crowd was demanding his bowling in the last game. We came very close to giving him an over.
"And then we've got Surya (kumar Yadav) who can turn his arm over a little bit. And then Rohit (Sharma) has bowled a bit as well. So obviously, the sixth option is something that Hardik gave us. But we have been playing the last four games without the sixth bowling option. We also played a couple of games in the Australia series before the World Cup without the sixth option. We won two of our games, both in Mohali and in Indore, when we played only with five bowling options in those games as well.
"So, we have responded really well to that challenge. Yes, of course, we probably won't have that sixth bowling option in these games. But the response of the team and the players has been really good when we have not had it. So, I think we have played enough games without having it. And we seem to have done pretty well."
While Hardik's absence denies them both the sixth bowler option and No. 8 batter, the runs from the blades of Shreyas Iyer and Shubman Gill -- both of whom had some underwhelming outings -- were encouraging, providing some solidity to the batting.
"I think both of the guys, it was nice to see Shubman. He was in such good form and playing so well. It was just a little unfortunate for him that he picked up dengue at the start of the tournament. And it's taken him a little bit of time to get over that. I think we underestimate the kind of effect something like that can have on you, and then having to come out and play in the heat and travel. And it's been quite a hectic tournament as well. It is really nice for him to be able to grind out some really good runs for us in Mumbai.
"And Shreyas as well, I think again he is someone who has been, he has batted well, but just hasn't, maybe in a few of the games, gone on and ticked on and got a big score. So, we wanted to go hard and for him to have that courage and the skill to be able to execute that performance knowing that he hadn't got runs in the last 2-3 games, I think speaks volumes about him as a person and his temperament. It's not easy to come out and play like that when you've had a couple of tough games behind you."