I thought we left probably 70 runs on the board in the first innings – Rahul Dravid on India’s loss

India suffered a rare defeat at home at the hands of a touring English side as Tom Hartley shined with the ball, claiming seven wickets in the second innings to bowl out India for 202 in their chase of the 231-run target.

Despite a redoubtable show from the Indian tail, the rest of the batting unit crumbled like a house of cards in front of the visitors. 

Rahul Dravid, the coach of the Indian team, spoke at length in the post-match conference, highlighting what went wrong for the hosts while also heaping praises on Ollie Pope’s match-winning knock. He also vowed for a comeback in the following Test from Team India.

Dravid said, “I thought we left probably 70 runs on the board in the first innings. You know, I think in our first innings, when conditions were pretty good to bat in on day two, I thought in the kinds of situations we got ourselves into, some good starts and we didn't really capitalise. We didn't get a hundred, you know, we didn't get somebody getting a really big hundred for us. So, in some ways, in India, I just felt we left those 70, 80 runs back in the hut in the first innings.”

He further added, “Second innings is always going to be challenging. It's one of those things that, you know, it's tough. It's not easy to chase 230 or it's not done very often. Look, I wouldn't be too harsh. Rahul missed a really short ball. It just stopped. One of those things can go straight into deep midwicket's hand. But, like I said earlier, I thought even in the first innings we could have converted some of those starts and probably got us closer to 500 and completely sealed the game. But, having said that, you know, I thought 190 was a really good score, to be very honest with you. But then again, not many teams come in and score 420 in the third innings in India and not many players get 196. So, you know, well done."

Dravid continued, “To be fair, there have been challenging wickets as well over the last few years. And it's been a bit of a challenge for some of our young batsmen to adapt. But they've got the skill and they've got the ability, and they've not come here just like that; they've come here by scoring a lot of runs in domestic cricket, doing well in A-team cricket. So, you know, they are being picked on merit.”

Vowing to come back in the next game, Dravid said, “I haven't seen a better exhibition of sweeping and reverse sweeping [than Ollie Pope] ever in these conditions against that quality of bowling. Having said that, for us now, it's important that we respond and come up with some plans and some strategies and see how we can maybe make him play those shots from probably even more difficult lengths and be even more disciplined and even more meticulous with our execution.”

He concluded by saying, “Because, I thought a little bit our execution went off. Not by much. Credit to him, but we were a little bit off and hopefully in the next Test match, if we get our execution right, then I hope he makes a mistake."