Ganguly grills Dravid over falling averages, coach’s response triggers Gavaskar

Team India had yet another forgettable final in the World Test Championship; this time, the side faced a 209-run defeat to Australia at The Oval. Chasing a 444-run target, India were bowled out for merely 234; the side had started the fifth and final day of the Test at 164/3 and lost all of its seven wickets inside the opening session.

The batting collapse began when Virat Kohli chased a wide delivery from Scott Boland, handing a catch to Steve Smith at slips; the remaining six wickets fell inside the next 55 runs.

Following the disappointing loss, India’s head coach Rahul Dravid was grilled by former cricketers and Dravid’s ex-teammates Sourav Ganguly and Harbhajan Singh, as the trio touched upon various factors that contributed to the defeat. Ganguly pointed out that India batters have been struggling over the past few years, and stated that their averages have been a cause of worry.

The former India captain stated that seldom has a batter crossed the average of 30 over the past couple of years, insisting that the batting order needs to be reworked. Dravid, however, explained that the competitive nature of the World Test Championship, and result-oriented pitches have impacted the averages of players around the world, and not just from India.

“Our top-5 is quite experienced. These players will be considered legends; the same boys won the series in Australia, the same boys won in England as well. They are good players. But I accept, and I think they will as well, that they didn’t do justice to the high standards that they’ve set for themselves,” Dravid told Ganguly during a chat on Star Sports.

“We are working on it. Some of the wickets have been quite challenging. This was a good wicket, I admit, but there were many conditions which weren’t quite good for batting. In WTC cycle, every match is important. We can’t play for draw anymore. We have difficult wickets in India, and result-oriented wickets are there outside India as well. So, all players have taken a hit on their averages, it’s not just our players.

“But yes, we know that we need to score runs on the board to give our bowlers a chance. That’s what we used to do.”

Following the interview, the broadcast shifted to the other side of the pitch where Sunil Gavaskar was readying himself for a seperate segment. When the anchor spoke about Dravid’s explanation over the falling averages and asked Gavaskar on his opinion, the former India captain turned livid, insisting that Dravid should focus on his own team.

“It doesn’t matter what the other players’ averages are. We are talking about the Indian team now. The Indian players’ averages are falling, something has to be done. The batting is the one whiich is costing problems. Why is it happening? That’s something we need to look at. You bat well in India, you are the ‘dadas’ in India, but then, some of them falter outside,” Gavaskar told Star Sports.

“Is the level of coaching not what you require? Is there not much of analysis about areas where you lack? Honest self-assessment is an absolute necessity after this. One team is going to win, one is going to lose. It’s how you lose, that’s the thing. That hurts.

“We have also been knocked out. And we have been miserable. You cannot say that the current lot is beyond criticism. You have to be analytical about what happened out there. Was our approach right? Was our selection right? You can’t brush this under the carpet,” Gavaskar further said.