IND vs AUS: Score more, Concede less!

India coach Rahul Dravid (extreme left) interacts with players during the team huddle at Ahmedabad yesterday. Pic/AFP

The hunt for points to make a pitch for top honours in the World Test Championship is one of the reasons for ‘challenging' pitches worldwide where, with the onus on eking out victories at home, batting big and long has almost gone out of the window.

Three Day-Three finishes in the ongoing India-Australia series for the Border-Gavaskar Trophy have attracted two pitch ratings of average and one rating of poor from match referees Andy Pycroft and Chris Broad respectively. Acknowledging that the referees were entitled to make their opinion, India head coach Rahul Dravid said on Tuesday, "What I will say is that, sometimes with WTC points at stake, you are looking to play on a wicket that produces results. It can happen and not only in India; even across the world, you are seeing that at times, it's difficult to get that balance perfectly right."

Warming to the theme, the former skipper went on, "There is a huge premium on results. You draw a game like Kanpur against New Zealand [Dravid's first Test as coach, in November 2021] where you take nine wickets in the second innings, it sets you back, in a home game. There's tough competition all round. Every team is getting results at home, putting in really good performances at home. Whether home or away, there's a definite premium on getting wins ahead of draws. You get four points for a draw and 12 for a win, so there is a premium on that."

Also read: Border-Gavaskar Trophy: Pressed into inaction!

Having won the first two Tests handsomely, India slumped to a nine-wicket defeat in Indore, which marked the third successive instance of the team winning the toss and batting first going on to lose the game. India were undone by their dismal first-innings display on Day One, by the end of which Australia were firmly in control.

Dravid said India needed to pull up their socks in both primary disciplines going into the final game, starting at the Narendra Modi Stadium on Thursday.

"If you see, 109 in the first innings was a little less," he pointed out. "If we had got 60-70 more runs, it would have been good. We also gave away quite a few runs in the first innings (197) in those conditions. So, we'll have to play well in both areas.

We are up 2-1 in this series and we'd like to maintain that or go one better, and obviously try and see if we can seal the World Test Championship qualification on our own and not have to rely on other people."