Dravid confirmed that pacer Mohammad Siraj has not recovered from a hamstring injury sustained during the second Test and it cannot be said with certainty that he will be available for the final match starting January 11 in Cape Town.
“Siraj is not fully fit and we have to go ahead and check what is his fitness status. In the next 4 days, can he be fit and will be doing physio scans.”
“As far as Hanuma Vihari’s on-field hit is concerned, I am not in a position to tell the extent of the injury as I have not had a detailed conversation with the physio.”
Siraj’s injury created a problem neither here nor there while defending the target which was 240.
“Losing Siraj (was a factor) because he wasn’t 100 per cent in the first innings,” said Dravid, while appreciating the pacer for bowling his heart out even when he was injured.
“We had a fifth bowler and we couldn’t use that as much as we wanted to in that first innings and that affected our strategy.”
Used Ashwin in the afternoon on the fourth day to take advantage of the “dry ball”.
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Starting the proceedings on the fourth afternoon with Ravichandran Ashwin drew much criticism but the head coach defended the decision.
“I think we saw the ball spin for Ashwin on the third day and we wanted to bring him into action till the ball dries up and see if he gets some spin in the first few overs.
“The ball got wet (due to the outfield being wet), it was difficult for a spinner to get into the game. He (Ashwin) bowled really well on the third day. The gamble was to try to give him a dry ball,” the coach explained.
Not having a practice game is no excuse
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Dravid, who had already talked about how batsmen should capitalize on crucial moments, did not agree that not having practice matches could be an excuse.
“We prepared well in these Covid conditions and the fact that we didn’t have a three-day game, … there really is no excuse other than the fact that we played well in the first Test and SA beat us in this game. Gave.”
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