And while international cricketers are used to mind-numbing travel schedules, zipping from city to city to play 40 overs of cricket can’t be easy on either the mind or the body.
“It’s a challenge for everyone, not just for us,” Dravid said when asked if the traveling was taking its toll. “It’s not easy... we played a game last night in Chennai and we’re playing again tomorrow. The good thing is it’s an 8 pm start so at least we can get some rest in.”
While the 8 pm start does give players extra time to snooze, the Bangalore side should really be worried about waking up from their prolonged slumber. A team with a few high-profile signings seems intent on proving wrong the theory that a good cricketer is good enough to play any form of the game.
Need to get lucky
In a line-up that was supposed to be led by Jacques Kallis and Dravid, it’s the less conventional — and less celebrated — Ross Taylor who is calling the shots.
Both Dravid and Martin Crowe, the team’s chief cricket officer, admitted that they had a lot of work to do — and that they needed to start getting lucky.
“No one’s done a McCullum or a Hayden or a Sehwag for us,” Crowe said. “It’s more a side that needs consistent performances from all the players. It’s still a game of bowlers and batsmen, so in that sense it’s not different. But we need to learn and we need to learn quickly.”
Setting problems
For the hosts, the only concern after three games will be how uncomfortable their line-up looked setting a target against Mohali. Having authoritatively chased down small totals in their first two matches, they looked a little lost batting first in Mohali, unable to walk the line between pushing hard and playing safe. If they manage to bowl first, they will be the big favourites, if not things might get a little more interesting than the first game that was played out here.
PS: Rahul Dravid was, predictably, asked for his take on the Harbhajan-Sreesanth slap row and whether it would affect equations in the Indian dressing room.
“I don’t really think so,” he said. “They’re all mature adults.” Well, the deadly duo didn’t exactly look like mature adults on Friday night, did they?
