India head coach Rahul Dravid said the team’s timid 10-wicket defeat to England in the semifinal was disappointing but the T20 World Cup campaign as a whole was not a debacle. India were outplayed in all facets of the game by Jos Buttler’s side and finished an unpleasant second on a pleasant evening in Adelaide, taking their drought at ICC events into a 10th year.

Among questions posed about the immediate future of the Indian T20I side, which Dravid was non-committal about in the immediate aftermath of the defeat, the India head coach was asked if the team was disadvantaged by BCCI’s policy of not sending its players to play in other T20 leagues around the world. While the conditions in Australia for this early season World Cup haven’t been anywhere near to what they usually play like, the question was in reference to England’s BBL experience coming to the fore on the day with only Moeen Ali and Sam Curran from their XI on the day not having played in Australia’s domestic T20 league.

Dravid agreed that England’s experience showed on the day but stated that allowing Indian players to play the BBL was not a straightforward solution as it would spell the doom of India’s domestic cricket, especially the Ranji Trophy which would run parallely. “It’s tough. I think it’s very difficult for Indian cricket because a lot of these tournaments happen right in the peak of our season,” Dravid said.

“I think it’s a huge challenge for us. Yes, I think a lot of our boys maybe do miss out on the opportunities of playing in a lot of these leagues, but if you were to, it’s really up to the BCCI to make that decision, but the thing is it’s right in the middle of our season, and with the kind of demand there would be for Indian players, if you allowed all the Indian players to play in these leagues, we would not have domestic cricket. Our domestic trophy, our Ranji Trophy would be finished, and that would mean Test cricket would be finished.

“I know a lot of people talk about it, but we have to be very careful. We have to understand the challenges that Indian cricket faces or the BCCI would face in a situation like this. You’d see all our boys like a lot of boys being asked to play leagues right bang in the middle of our season. We’ve seen what that’s done to West Indian cricket, and I would definitely not want Indian cricket to go that way. It would certainly affect our Ranji Trophy; it would affect Test cricket. Indian boys playing Test cricket is pretty important for the Test game, as well, I would think.”

Dravid credited England’s opening pair of Jos Buttler and Alex Hales for the highest partnership in T20 World Cup history (170*) which put paid to the little hopes India held at the half-way point of the game. He also cited that the lack of swing up front with the new ball contributed to a negative match-up. “We knew the key to the game obviously was to try and take that opening partnership as early as we could. We tried to attack a little bit with our lengths up front. We thought that was a tactic. They played that really well,” Dravid said.

“The ball didn’t swing here probably as much as it has in other parts of Australia or in other conditions. Played a little bit into their hands, and class players like that, both Buttler and Hales, I thought their partnership was fantastic today. I think they just put the pressure on us, never let that go, and even when our spinners came on on a wicket that we thought we might be able to control the game, they really counterattacked our spinners, as well, and put our spinners under a lot of pressure.

“Once they got off to that kind of start, I think they could really sit back and control the run rate. We had 168. They brought that run rate down to six and a half I think by the time the sixth over was finished, or seven runs an over, and then on a small ground like that, they were always in control, so they were going to control that game.

“They didn’t really need to take too many risks. They could sit back and — not that they didn’t take them; they played some really good shots right through. But yeah, these things happen. Yeah, it’s disappointing. Debacle I’m not sure is the right word, but disappointing certainly.” (Cricbuzz)