Rajasthan Royals head coach Rahul Dravid has opined on his team’s bowling after another narrow defeat, this time by 10 runs to Punjab Kings as well. While RR have been struggling in run-chases this season, Dravid said that the bowlers too must take responsibility for the defeats.
“There’s no point just blaming the batsmen. To be honest, this wicket I didn’t think it was 220 wicket… It was about 195-200 wicket and we gave 20 runs extra also,” Dravid said.
He also shared how the bowling unit has underperformed throughout the season, struggling to take wickets and control the scoring rate as well.
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“If we look at the statistics of the entire season, we haven’t been able to do well in bowling, neither in taking wickets nor in controlling the runs. We are chasing in nine out of 10 matches, and every time the target is 200-210-220. Even then, our openers are giving us a good start, but we aren’t able to finish the run chase. So we have to work on these things next season, on the bowling, even in the fielding, where we are missing catches,” he shared.
“Sometimes it looks like you’ve only won three matches. But if we look at it, we’ve lost five close matches. So if we are able to get over the line in those 4-5 close matches in a row, sometimes the season looks good, but there’s no excuse. You have to win. If you have to do well in this tournament, you can’t lose five close matches. You can lose 1-2, but you can’t lose five close matches. We were not able to do that in the last phase of the season, but we’re hopeful that there are some good talents in the team,” he again added.
Alongside bowling and fielding concerns, Rahul Dravid also opened up on the concerns around the middle and lower-middle order as well.
“It’s been a tough one,” Dravid said. “We’ve got close, but we haven’t been able to finish the job. It’s been one of those kind of seasons where you always feel with the ball that we probably give 15-20 runs extra and then you’ve got yourself in some really good positions to win the games, but we haven’t been able to finish the job and a little bit around that lower, lower-middle order we just haven’t been able to click and get the big shots that we need.”
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“I mean, it’s been five games now where the margins have really been one or two hits, which you need in that phase, which we just haven’t been able to do. So it’s not that we’ve been losing too many wickets, we’re still only five down today, but we just haven’t been able to hit those shots,” he added.
However, despite the poor show, Rahul Dravid showed confidence in the young middle order, backing them to do well after a bit more experience next season as well.
“This is really a quality middle order. You’ve got Riyan (Parag) and Dhruv (Jurel) and then Sanju (Samson) was playing in that middle order today as well, so that’s really quality India kind of players with an overseas guy who’s also playing international cricket. To be fair, all of them had good performances through the season. It’s not that they didn’t. Riyan played some very good knocks, Dhruv we saw today played a terrific knock, probably Hettie at the back end maybe missed out this season, which was a bit tough on us, but that can happen. I mean that’s the game. That’s the nature of the game,” Rahul Dravid concluded.
