BAN vs IND 2022: We are not going to get there if we don’t take the first steps well – Rahul Dravid on WTC final qualification

Indian head coach Rahul Dravid feels it is important for his team to take the right first steps in order to qualify for the World Test Championship final. India is currently in fourth place in the WTC standings and the series against Bangladesh and Australia will play a key role in their qualification.

India has a healthy lead of 290 runs at the lunch break on the third day’s play after skittling out Bangladesh at 150 runs. Thus, India is in a dominating position to take crucial points from this match.

Meanwhile, India had qualified for the first edition of the World Test Championship final but they couldn’t cross the last hurdle against New Zealand.

Earlier in the year, India lost the three-match Test series against South Africa by 2-1 and also lost the rescheduled Test match against England in July.

“It’s one step at a time. I don’t think we can start looking at the sixth one when we start here. We’ve got to win this one first. We’ve got to play our best cricket to give ourselves a chance to win this first one and then go to Dhaka to replicate that and take it as we go.”

“We know we’ve got a challenge on our hands. We know we’ve got to win the majority of our games in the World Test Championship, but we are not going to get there if we don’t take the first steps well. So, we’ve got to focus on this one and then see how the cards fall and how it goes and see what we’ve got to do in the series against Australia,” said Dravid in a video posted on bcci.tv.

Meanwhile, Dravid feels the other teams have been playing aggressively with WTC points on the table as England has been super aggressive since Brendon McCullum has taken over the coaching role. Dravid feels adaptability to play according to the match situation will hold the key to the team’s success.

“Teams have already been aggressive over the last bit (of time). Teams are playing for results a lot more now, especially with the WTC points at stake. I still think adaptability is going to be very important in Test cricket.”

“That ability to play aggressively when you need to…or you can play aggressively with the kind of squad you have or the kind of position you find yourself in the game and then the opportunity to be able to play a difficult period or a difficult day of Test cricket either with the bat or with the ball and knuckle down and play some tough, hard cricket as well.”

“The teams that have that adaptability or that ability to be able to switch so to speak even in between a Test match are the ones that are going to be very successful.”