"Dar Kar Khel Rahe...": Rahul Dravid Told After India's Cricket World Cup Final Loss. His Reply Is Gold

The star-studded Indian batting unit faltered on the biggest stage but head coach Rahul Dravid backed his players, saying they were not defensive and game circumstances dictated how the batters went about their job. India managed a below-par 240 against Australia in the World Cup final here on Sunday, and Pat Cummins' team gunned down the target in 43 overs to secure a record-extending sixth World Cup title.

After losing three wickets for 81 runs, Virat Kohli (54 off 63) and K L Rahul (66 off 107) went on consolidation mode in the middle overs where the hosts could only find the boundary twice.

Reporter: "Last year in the T20 World Cup, we made 170 runs in 20 overs, and England chased it easily. Today when we made 240 runs - Australia did not face any difficulties. Rohit comes on this wicket and scores 45-47 in 30 balls. But on the other hand, there are some batsmen who can score 60-65 runs on 110 balls. And the strike rate is very low. So, what happens is that in big matches, we play a little scared. You feel that our approach is not right? What are the issues? These issues have been visible since the last three or four World Cups, Asia Cups."

Rahul Dravid: "I won't believe that we played with fear in this tournament. In this final match, we were on 80 runs in 10 overs. We were losing wickets. When you lose wickets, you have to change your strategy and tactics. We showed that in this tournament. When we lost against England, we played differently. You have to play. You start with front foot cricket. And in this match, in the final, we didn't play anything out of fear. They did a lot of good bowling in the middle overs.

"We lost three wickets. So, we needed a period of consolidation. But whenever we thought we'd play