Rajasthan Royals Mentor Rahul Dravid insisted on Thursday that his team has not played poor cricket in the ongoing IPl barring one game against RCB when they were restricted to a paltry score of 130.
“We started well by winning five games on the trot. Then two of our games got rained out and we lost two games (against SRH and CSK). We have not played badly barring the one game against RCB when we made 130. The others were lost narrowly and/or via the super over (against Kings XI Punjab),” said Dravid, at the announcement of Royals’ new social initiative, ‘Bat for the Girl Child’, here.
Royals are currently placed fourth with 14 points and a game against defending champions KKR in hand at on May 16, which is a must-win game for the Jaipur franchise.
Dravid was full of praise for the incredible shot-making of AB de Villiers that he exhibited for RCB against MI on Sunday while making 133 not out in just 59 balls.
“Even in best of form, I could not imagine to play that way. He and Brendon McCullum are showing the way ahead for the youngsters. The game is going ahead. Viv Richards (West Indies) first showed how to attack and then (Sanath) Jayasuriya and (Romesh) Kaluwitharana (of Sri lanka) showed how to bat in the first 15 overs of an ODI,” he said.
Calling for more balance between the bat and the ball, Dravid supported the idea of allowing bowlers to bowl two bouncers an over even in T20 games. “Currently, if a bowler bowls a bouncer off the first ball of an over, the batsmen can attack him as they know he cannot bowl another bouncer in that over. Even in T20s two bouncers per over should be allowed. The boundary length should also be increased to redress the balance.”
Citing Virender Sehwag’s example, Dravid said that he played in the same manner across all formats.
“Viru plays the same way in all formats,” Dravid said. Dravid said players like De Villiers and McCullum possess the gift of adapting their game in varied formats as per the needs.
Asked whether he would prefer an Indian or a foreigner to become the new coach of the Indian team, Dravid said the nationality didn’t matter.
“The world is becoming more professional with passage of time. Indians go abroad to take up coaching jobs and similarly foreign nationals come to India for the same reason. Whoever is the most suitable for the job should be given the chance (to coach India),” he said.