Sydney: India cricket legend Rahul Dravid Saturday said star batsman Virat Kohli will need to be at his best during the ICC World Cup as the Indian team was heavily reliant on its One-Day International (ODI) vice captain.
“If you look at the Indian batting lineup, they are in a sense heavily reliant on someone like Virat Kohli to get India through those middle overs which allows the likes of Raina and Dhoni to come at the back end and finish off games,” Dravid was quoted as saying by ESPNcricinfo.
He further added Kohli needs to bat well and set the tempo if India are to have a chance of retaining the World Cup.
“He will need to bat well. He’ll need to set the tempo for the side.”
Dravid was, however, concerned about the death bowling of the team terming it “inconsistent”.
“Mohammad Shami we’ve seen has a good yorker and when he’s on song he does well. Ishant Sharma has blown hot and cold in one-day cricket. Bhuvneshwar Kumar is brilliant when the balls swings, but again his death bowling has been good on some days, not been great (on other days) same with Umesh Yadav. So there’s no consistency in that,” he added.
Dravid meanwhile described the decision to include injured captain Michael Clarke in the 15-member squad for the World Cup as “un-Australian”.
Dravid also said that without Clarke, the Australian team would not face too much of a difficulty in the upcoming quadrennial tournament as in-form batsman Steven Smith would seamlessly fill in the void.
“You just felt they had to take this decision. It’s almost a very un-Australian decision,” Dravid was quoted as saying by ESPNcricinfo Friday.
“Without him (Clarke) being in the squad and you just bring Steven Smith into it, they don’t look a weaker side at all.”
Dravid hoped that the co-hosts haven’t taken an emotional decision, a trait particularly unheard of in Australian cricket.
Clarke has been dogged by persistent problems on his back and hamstring that forced him to partially miss the recent home Test series against Australia.
“In fact, some people might argue they actually look a better side. I just hope it is not an emotional decision,” he added.
