Former Indian cricketer Rahul Dravid said the presence ofwicket-taking bowlers will greatly benefit India in the middleovers in what is expected to be a high-scoring World Cup.
Alongsidehosts England and Australia, India will enter the ICC showpiece asfavourites.
The tournament kicks off on May 30 with the grandfinale slated for July at the Lord’s Cricket Ground.
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“Having experienced some of the conditions in England last year withthe A tour, I believe it would be a high scoring World Cup. And in a highscoring WC, having bowlers who can take wickets in the middle willbe very important. I think India is lucky in that regard,” the former captain told Star Sports at the Star Re.Imagine Awards.
Dravid added, “People like (Jasprit) Bumrah,Kuldeep Yadav and Yuzvendra Chahal... (We have) got bowlers who cantake wickets. Teams that are taking wickets through thosemiddle-overs in those high scoring games have a better betterchance of restricting the opposition.”
India played their lastinternational on March 13, after which the IPL kicked off. Whilethe loss in the five-match series to Australia at home came as ashock, India have done well in ODIs over the last year, scripting ahistoric series win in South Africa. They have also won inAustralia and New Zealand.
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Dravid took these victories into consideration while talking about India’s prospects in the tournament.
“I think we have had a couple of really good years leading to theWorld Cup. For the right reasons, we are number 2 in the World and thatactually means that we have consistently produced some successfulresults in the last two and half years. We can be hopeful.
“I thinkit’s going to be a tough World Cup. Every team comes well preparedand wants to compete. Everyone will be puttingtheir best foot forward. India isdefinitely one of the favourites into the tournament and hopefully we make the semi-final and from there onthere are four very good teams,” Dravid said.
“Bowling is going toplay a very big role in this World Cup and the team that bowlsbest, probably will be closer to winning it.”
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The legendary batsmanheaped praise on captain Virat Kohli.
“Virat, you knowhe just keeps improving, keeps getting better. He is setting barsand standards that we thought would never be achieved.Sachin (Tendulkar) scored 49-50 hundreds in one-day cricket. Peoplethought that this would be impossible or at least take a lot of time to achieve. Virat is 10 away from it or close to it.
“It isnot that he hasn’t had bad tours - he had disappointing tour ofEngland in 2014, he wasn’t as successful in Australia first timearound. Oneof the things about Virat is that even if he has a bad tour, he goes back as a betterplayer the next time. He sort of reinvents his game to a point where he isconstantly improving,” he said.
Dravid also tipped his hat to Mahendra Singh Dhoni, lauding his ability to ace big matches.
“The beauty about MS is how he plays thesebig tournaments and these big matches. I tell a lot of under-19 boys, he is able to find a way toplay it like it doesn’t mean a lot, obviously it means a lot. Heis able to see a bigger picture in it and say — I’m not defined bythis particular game. It is a hard thing to do,” he added.
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