India head coach Rahul Dravid isn't bothered about the volume of runs scored by his star batter Virat Kohli but is more concerned about how much impact his contributions make in the larger cause of the team. (More Cricket News)
Kohli's patchy form and a below par strike-rate coming in at No. 3 has been questioned time and again and for the umpteenth time, Dravid came to former India captain's defence. “He's (Kohli) also coming back after a break,” Dravid said ahead of the Asia Cup 2022 Super Four tie against Pakistan.
“It's nice to see that he's come back fresh, looking forward to playing all these games. He got time to spend in the middle. Hopefully he will kick on from here on and have a good tournament,” Dravid added.
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But he once again tried to assert that Kohli's form is least of concerns as far as he is concerned and also urged people not to be obsessed about one particular player's numbers. “For us, it's not really about how many runs he makes. Especially with Virat, people get a little bit obsessed with his statistics and numbers. For us, it's really not about that,” 'The Wall' said.
“It's about the contributions he makes at different phases of the game. It doesn't have to be in 50s or 100s or a stat for us, even a small contribution makes a lot for us in T20s. He's really keen on putting on good performances,” Dravid said.
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All-rounder Ravindra Jadeja has been ruled out of Asia Cup 2022 and is also set to be out of World T20 as he is set to undergo a knee surgery which would rule him out for indefinite period. However, the former India captain remained largely non-committal on Jadeja.
“Jadeja obviously has injured his knee. He's under the care of the medical team, seeing the experts. World Cup is a fair way away. We don't want to jump to any conclusions, rule him out or rule him in,” Dravid said in his inimitable style.
“People get injured, a lot depends on the rehab, severity of the injury. I don't want to rule him out, make too many comments until I have a much clearer picture or better idea especially when the World Cup is six-seven weeks away now,” the head coach said.
Dravid however did indicate that out of form pacer Avesh KHan is a bit under the weather and could miss Sunday's game. “Avesh is feeling under the weather, fever and stuff, doctors managing him. Hopefully it's not serious, okay for tomorrow or later part of the tournament,” Dravid said.
