I don’t really like the current World Cup format: Rahul Dravid
Posted January 21st, 2015, 11:39 AM IST
“Don’t really like it. Reason is you can almost predict who the top eight teams are going to be. There comes a time in the tournament, and I sensed it in India in the last World Cup. I wasn’t playing, I was just watching. Everyone starts to wait for the quarterfinals, because you know that those are the three big games.
“The best formats for me would be the two World Cups I played in 1999 and 2003. They had the group stage, then the super six then you went on the play a semifinal and a final.
You had to play well through the tournament. It gave you bit of a chance to recover,” Dravid said in a video chat show on ESPNcricinfo titled ‘Contenders’, which also features former South African skipper Graeme Smith.
“The one in 2007, I didn’t like particularly well myself. Wonder why? But I think it gave you a chance to come back. The intention was right, get the best eight teams playing each other but sometimes if you started badly, you couldn’t recover,” he added.
Known as the ‘The Wall’ of Indian cricket, Dravid exemplified the No.3 spot in the batting order and scored runs in Test and ODI cricket despite sticking to the copybook style. Now an astute analyst, Dravid believes teams’ should put their best men at the top of the batting chart.
“Yeah definitely would be looking at batsmen that are not going to get nicked off early. You still want attacking batsmen, you still want guys who can play your shots even against faster bowlers, if the wickets have pace and bounce and you want batsmen that have good strong back foot game and I think that’s going to be important with the two new balls as well.
“Those are the kind of guys you want to push up in front and then maybe have your power hitters and your finishers at the back end of an innings,” said Dravid.
Always a keen student of the game, Dravid opines that spinners will have a role to play in the upcoming World Cup.
“Seeing some of the wickets in the Test series, those are the grounds we are going to be playing the World Cup in as well, they’ve been really slow wickets, and the spinners have come into play for those wickets. So you’re just going to have to balance it out.
“There can be conditions where spinners might not have such a big impact in a particular game, but you might go to Adelaide or Sydney and you’ll see it’s a lot dryer,” said Dravid.
Dravid, who scored 10,889 runs in 344 ODIs for India, said some of the new rules have been too harsh on the bowlers.
“Some of them are good ones, but some of them do make it very difficult for the bowlers. These rules have been on for a while now, they don’t impact scores in countries like Australia and New Zealand as they have done in sub continental conditions.
“The effect of reverse swing is reduced when you have two new balls that only last for 25 overs, but I don’t think it would be a huge impact in Australia because with the two new balls, the fast bowlers will get that level of assistance up front so that should benefit them, then the grounds are going to be bigger as well, so it’s not going to be that easy to clear the ropes,” he said.
“For example: When you have 5 fielders in the ring, it’s very hard to play a part time bowler, you are forced to play 5 specialist bowlers and for a country like India, that for a long time managed. I mean for the last World Cup, it was Yuvraj Singh bowling 10 overs every single game. That allowed them that advantage. It’s going to be hard to do that,” he added.
- BATC: Indian women’s team reaches maiden final with 3-2 win over Japan
- India defeat England by 106 runs to level five-Test series 1-1
- FIR against gaming site, FB page as Tendulkar raises concerns over his deepfake video
- Telangana Sailors Shine at National Sailing Championships, Bag Medals
- Inaugural Edition of Indian Street Premier League to Begin from March 2
- Thrilled to welcome Hardik back home to Mumbai Indians, says Nita Ambani
- Techie dies of heart attack as India loses to Australia in World Cup final
- Carlos Alcaraz set to make ATP finals debut in Turin
- Pandya had hurt his left ankle while fielding of his own bowling in the game against Bangladesh in Pune on October 19
- Coco Gauff and Iga Swiatek win their WTA Finals opening matches in straight sets
- Berlin to Host Germany's First Major WWE
- Para Asian Games: Gold rush continues as Deepthi Jeevanji clinches gold in women’s 400m-T20 final
- Indian cricket legend Bishan Singh Bedi passes away
- CWC 2023: After big ton, Warner credits IPL for success in ODIs
- India-Australia T20 set to dazzle Visakhapatnam
More Sports News
- ‘aha’ unveils promo for ‘Sarkaar Season 4’ featuring Sudigali Sudheer as host
- Record rains in UAE flood Dubai International Airport, disrupt travels
- Akshay Kumar joins Vishnu Manchu’s ‘Kannappa’ shoot in Hyderabad
- Suhana Khan shares joyful photos with Ananya Panday after KKR victory
- Kartik Aaryan says he’s ready for love, asks Neha Dhupia to find someone for him
- Indian film stars extend Ugadi, Gudi Padwa, and Navreh wishes
- Mrunal Thakur honored for ‘Hi Nanna’ performance, details inside
- Prithviraj-starrer ‘The Goat Life’ rakes it in: Rs 100 cr in 9 days
- Rashmika Mandanna’s ‘Srivalli’ takes center stage in Pushpa 2: The Rule poster drop
- Deepika Padukone’s ‘Deewani Mastani’ featured on Oscars’ Instagram; Ranveer Singh reacts
A PHP Error was encountered
Severity: Warning
Message: file_get_contents(): http:// wrapper is disabled in the server configuration by allow_url_fopen=0
Filename: views/newsdetails.php
Line Number: 29
Backtrace:
File: /home5/am2pm/public_html/application/views/newsdetails.php
Line: 29
Function: file_get_contents
File: /home5/am2pm/public_html/application/controllers/News.php
Line: 135
Function: view
File: /home5/am2pm/public_html/application/controllers/News.php
Line: 77
Function: newsdetails
File: /home5/am2pm/public_html/index.php
Line: 315
Function: require_once
A PHP Error was encountered
Severity: Warning
Message: file_get_contents(http://www.indiaaffiliates.in/ads.php?size=300X250): failed to open stream: no suitable wrapper could be found
Filename: views/newsdetails.php
Line Number: 29
Backtrace:
File: /home5/am2pm/public_html/application/views/newsdetails.php
Line: 29
Function: file_get_contents
File: /home5/am2pm/public_html/application/controllers/News.php
Line: 135
Function: view
File: /home5/am2pm/public_html/application/controllers/News.php
Line: 77
Function: newsdetails
File: /home5/am2pm/public_html/index.php
Line: 315
Function: require_once