KARACHI, Feb. 1. — Rahul Dravid ascribed India’s humiliating defeat in the third and final Test here to the disastrous outing which his side had against the new ball.

 

“The way we played the new ball was one of the main reasons why we lost the match because once the ball got old it did not do much. In both the innings we lost four wickets inside the first 20 overs and that put us under pressure,” the Indian skipper said at the post-match Press conference.

The dapper Bangalore batsman, who flopped in both his innings, said that after India won the toss, they were in a good position before Abdul Razzaq and Kamran Akmal staged a grand fightback. Dravid said India did not bowl as well in the second innings as they could have had.

Dravid acknowledged that lessons had been learnt from the defeat and henceforth, they would need to relook at the opening combination and a few other things. “In future, we would like to have the best batsman in their best batting position,” he asserted. Dravid however, gave the Pakistan pace bowlers full credit for their victory. “They made good use of the new ball and bowled better than us. Besides, some of our batsmen who had the ability to play big knocks got out early. We’ve done well in the past abroad, in Australia and here in Pakistan, but on this day we were not good enough. They bowled better than us.”

About Mohammad Asif, who contributed in a major way to Pakistan’s victory here, Dravid said: “Asif bowled in the right areas and hit the seam, which his bowlers couldn’t.” Asked what his team’s game plan was after they were set a 600 plus target, Dravid said the first imperative was to see off the new ball. After that it was just about taking each session at a time.

To a question about Sourav Ganguly’s performance in the Test, Dravid brushed it aside and said that he preferred to talk about the team and not discuss individuals. He however had no hesitation in praising Yuvraj Singh’s innings. “I’m not going to pick on individual performances. In India, we have this habit of glorifying players too much. We tend to get caught up in individuals and we tend to attribute losses and wins to individuals rather than focusing on the team. We try to crucify individuals, but I am not going to do that.”

The Indian captain admitted that this was indeed one of the most disappointing losses for a captain. “It is obviously not nice to lose any Test. But then this has been one of the most disappointing losses. It has been a collective failure.”

Meanwhile, Pakistan’s stand-in captain Younis Khan showered high praises on his bowlers who bowled his team to a flattering 341-run victory over India. “We bowled really well, especially Mohammad Asif. The wicket was pretty good on the first day, which is also why we could bounce back,” Khan said. “Our coach Mr Bob Woolmer’s advice also came handy for the bowlers. He told our bowlers to hit the deck and bowl wicket to wicket. And it helped us get wickets. In fact, this strategy earned us the wicket of Sachin Tendulkar, as that ball kept low,” explained Younis.