Former India head coach Rahul Dravid has revealed that the team and management didn't do anything different between ODI and T20 World Cup. Under the leadership of Rohit Sharma, India won the T20 World Cup after 17 years beating South Africa in the final at Bridgetown. It was a brilliant turnaround for the team that had lost the final of the ODI World Cup only seven months ago at home.
India had won 10 matches on the trot - nine in the league stage and one in the semi-final - before their run stopped in the final against Australia who won the World Cup in the ODI format for the record-extending sixth time. "Honestly, I didn't want to do anything different. I think we ran a fantastic campaign in the one-day World Cup, Rohit and the team, everyone involved in that one-day World Cup, we ran a superb campaign," Dravid said at the Ceat Cricket Rating Awards.
"There's nothing we could have done more in terms of our preparation, the planning, the execution of what we needed to do for 10 games in a row to dominate, to win the game we did, play the game we did," Dravid added. A very happy dressing room was one of the main reasons for India's exceptional performance at the World Cup last year and Dravid and his support staff just decided to not break the set pattern.
"I did not want to change anything. If you'd asked me and we had a discussion with our support staff, we'd get together with the coaches and say, what do you think we should do differently? The common consensus (among the team) was we needed to do exactly what we did. We need to create the same energy, create the same vibe, the same team atmosphere that we had and then just hope that on the day, we'll have a little bit of luck," the former India head coach added.
Moreover, Rahul Dravid also admitted that Australia were the better team in the final of the ODI World Cup last year and deserved to win the match. For the unversed, Australia chased down 241 runs in just 43 overs with six wickets in hand thanks to Travis Head's sensational ton in the summit clash.
"I thought we ran a phenomenal campaign. We came unstuck in the final and Australia played better cricket than us on the day. They were a better team and congratulations (to them). That can happen in sport and that's what sport is about," Dravid further said.
