Follow UsIndia and South Africa will clash in the T20 World Cup 2024 final in Barbados on June 29 (Saturday) in what will be Rahul Dravid's final match as India's head coach. Under him, India have made it to the World Test Championship (WTC) 2023 final, ODI World Cup 2023 final and now have made it to the final of the T20 World Cup as well.
Ahead of the summit clash, Dravid has credited players for the consistency, and it is something he is pleased with. "I think it's good that we are consistent and playing good cricket," Dravid said in the pre-match press conference.
"For many years, especially in the last year, being No. 1 in all three formats, playing in the finals, is a good thing. It gives a lot of credit to the boys, a lot of boys who are Test cricketers, who are our one-day players and also our T20 players. So, the Indian cricket has shown a lot of consistency, and it is a very happy thing."
With just a one-day gap between India's semi-final agianst England in Guyana and their final against South Africa, there clearly is not much time for the team to practice. Dravid believes that it is all about being mentally fit and ready ahead of the big game.
"It's just about all the guys getting into ensuring that physically, mentally, tactically, we are ready for the game," Dravid said.
"Those are the things that we can control - that we are fresh, that we have looked after all our niggles if there are any, we have done all our tactical preparation and they are mentally relaxed and excited and looking forward to the game. Those are the things we can control and we will be looking to do that in the next 24 hours and try and get ourselves in the right frame of mind to be able to play that game."
Are there any lessons from the loss in the ODI World Cup final? "Nothing, I thought we were very well prepared in that final as well," the 51-year-old said.
"I thought we were very well prepared in Ahmedabad [ODI World Cup final 2023]. We've done all the things, we've ticked all the boxes and, on the day, the other team played better and that's part of the sport. The other team that is coming there to play has also obviously reached the final, because they're a good team and they're playing very good cricket as well. So, they have as much right to win it as we do. But we hope that we will play better cricket on the day."
Unlike South Africa, India played a match in Barbados in the T20 World Cup against Afghanistan on June 20 - a game they won by 47 runs. While Dravid believes it is nice to have played a game at this venue, it will still be important for India to adapt well.
"It's nice that we have that familiarity thereof having played on that surface in the past. But again, I think it's very hard to... We're not going to get exactly the same wicket that we got last time. It can be different. And I think what's really important and I think what we've done really well as a group, I think in this whole tournament, is we have shown the ability to adapt, to recognize what is a good score," Dravid explained.
"We played very differently in New York than we played at St. Lucia. Then we even played in Barbados in the first game, and I thought that the wicket was quite slow. But again, for a final, we are not really sure what we are going to come up against. And I'm just hoping that whatever we come up against, we will have the ability to recognise it and to be able to play accordingly, as we've done in the last three games."
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