Indore: Indian suffered a bog blow when Jasprit Bumrah was ruled out of the upcoming T20 World Cup with a back injury. Indian head coach Rahul Dravid admitted that the pacer's absence is a "big loss" for the team but added that it opens up an opportunity for some other player to stand up and perform.
Bumrah missing the showpiece event in Australia compounds India's problems in in the death overs.
"Bumrah's absence is a big loss, he's been a great player but it happens, it's an opportunity for someone else to stand up. We'll miss him, his personality around the group," said Dravid after India won the three-match T20I series against South Africa 2-1.
"Good to get the right results in both series (against SA and Australia). In this format, you need luck, things to go your way, especially in close games. We didn't have that in the Asia Cup, but had some luck during the Australia series."
India lost the third final T20I against South Africa by 49 runs. They had defeated Australia too 2-1 earlier this month.
"We were able to rotate the squad a bit, pleased with how it's gone overall."
Talking about the aggressive batting approach of the team, Dravid said, "We made a decision after the last T20 World Cup, sat down with Rohit (Sharma), made a conscious effort to be positive.
"We have the batsmanship to play positively, we had to structure our squad with batting depth. Pleased with the way we've come along."
Senior players Virat Kohli and K L Rahul were rested for Tuesday's inconsequential tie. Rishabh Pant opened the innings while Dinesh Karthik was promoted to No. 4 to get more time in the middle.
"Today was an opportunity to give guys who haven't had much batting to get some time. It's hard on guys like Rishabh, Dinesh. Wish both of them could've continued, they were batting beautifully," said Dravid.
"Four-five overs more and it could've been a lot closer. Happy with the way we kept going, Harshal (Patel) and Deepak (Chahr) and the other guys,” he added.
(With inputs from PTI)
