Head coach Rahul Dravid defended India's decision to bowl first in the World Test Championship Final against Australia, saying the call was dictated by overcast conditions and grass on the pitch.
In pursuit of a record 444, India were bowled out for 234 in the first session of the fifth day itself to lose their second WTC Final in a row by a massive margin of 209 runs.
Dravid was posed some tough questions by Sourav Ganguly, who commentated during the WTC Final. Ganguly asked his former teammate Dravid the logic behind the reason to bowl first and he responded by saying that the decision was not about "tackling pressure". "We decided to bowl first in the Test match because the conditions were overcast and there was quite a lot of grass on the pitch," Dravid said. "So, we thought that it would get easier to bat on later in the pitch and that was the same case here also.
Most teams in recent times have opted to field first in England," Dravid said. "We thought that it was a great decision when Aussies were at 70/3 and then we leaked a lot of runs in the next two sessions.