SA vs IND 2022: We played some poor shots and didn’t play smart cricket in critical situations – Rahul Dravid

India’s head coach Rahul Dravid admitted that they played some poor shots and didn’t play smart cricket in critical situations of the ODI series, which they lost by 3-0 against South Africa.

Dravid reckons that the team should have been able to chase down the target in the two ODIs in which they were batting second but could not get over the line due to poor shot selection.

The chief coach believes there is a lot to learn for his team and this series loss is certainly an eye-opener for them. India was without the services of players like Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja, and Rohit Sharma and Dravid reckons the team certainly missed a quality all-rounder and they were not able to get their balance right.

India was not able to come up with a collective effort in the ODI series and it led to the downfall of the team. The middle-order once again could not deliver the goods for the visitors and they were completely dominated by the Proteas.

“This series certainly has been a good eye-opener for us. We have not played a lot of one day cricket. It is my first stint with the one-day side but even the team itself hasn’t played a lot of cricket in this format since the last World Cup,” Dravid told reporters.

“The last one they played was against England in March last year. We have got a fair bit of time before the World Cup next year and there is going to be a lot of cricket from now till then in the white-ball format. So it is an opportunity for us to reflect and learn, look to keep improving. We will improve, there is no doubt about it,” said Dravid.

Dravid feels the team can definitely come up with better performances in the middle order and they will need to pull up their socks.

“We certainly could do better with batting in the middle overs. We understand the template and a large part of it is dependent on the balance of the side. If we have to be honest, some of the guys who give that balance and all-round options in the lower middle order were not available. Hopefully, when they come back it gives us some depth which allows us to play in a certain style.

In fact, India was right in the game in the two matches in which they were chasing. However, Kohli and Dhawan were not able to convert their starts into substantial scores whereas the middle order could not get going.

“Having said that, even South Africa who batted first on two occasions scored only around 290 runs as well. In the 30th over of both those games, I was thinking we should have chased them down. We didn’t because we played some poor shots and didn’t play smart cricket in critical situations. But having said that, there is a lot to learn from this series, lot to reflect on,” said Dravid.

India will next host West Indies in three-match ODI and T20I series.