Rahul Dravid: We did not play smart cricket in critical situations

Indias head coach Rahul Dravid has attributed Team Indiarsquos 03 ODI series whitewash against South Africa to their failure in playing ldquosmart cricketrdquoIndia lost the first ODI on January 19 by 31 runs and followed it up two days later with a sevenwicket loss in the second onedayer On Sunday the visitors lost the third ODI by four runsDravid a former India captain however felt that the result could be an eyeopener ahead of the 2023 ODI World CupRahul Dravid PicPTIldquoThis ODI series is a good eyeopener for us This team has not played many ODIs after the 2019 World Cup Luckily we have a fair bit of time to go before the 2023 World Cup to be held in India There is going to be a lot of cricket in the whiteball format till 2023 This is a good opportunity for us to reflect learn and keep getting better We will get better and improve there is no doubt about thatrdquo Dravid said during the postmatch virtual press conference on SundayIn the third ODI at Newlands in Cape Town the Proteas were bowled out for 287 in 495 overs following which India were dismissed for 283 in 492 overs Virat Kohli 65 Shikhar Dhawan 61 and bowling allrounder Deepak Chahar 34ball 54 5x4 2x6 were impressiveWhen Kohli departed with the score reading 1564 in 314 overs India were very much in control but thereafter Suryakumar Yadav 32ball 39 and Shreyas Iyer 34ball 26 failed to build on their good starts Wicketkeeperbatter Rishabh Pant who came in at No4 and got a firstball duck while attempting to play a rash shot was also a disappointmentWhere India lost itDravid admitted that the team lost the plot somewhere in the middle of the chase ldquoIf I look at the 30over mark in both the games second and third ODIs we should have chased down the target but we did not because we played some poor shots and did not play smart cricket in critical situationsrdquo said Dravid as he went on to praise Chahar who also took two wickets on his first game of the tourldquoI have seen him Chahar at India lsquoArsquo so I know what he can do with the bat and that certainly gives us a lot more options It is nice to have people like him Chahar and Shardul Thakur who we have seen in the last couple of games contribute with the bat as well More and more players like these certainly make a big differencerdquoFinally Dravid also had some positive words for standin captain KL Rahul who led the team in fouroutoffour defeats he led in the second Test after Kohli was out with a back spasm and then continued to lead in the three ODIs as Rohit Sharma did not travel to SA due a hamstring injurylsquoCaptain Rahul will improversquoldquoItrsquos not easy to end up on the wrong side of the result He Rahul is just starting out his journey as captain A large part of captaincy is also the execution of the skills of your players We were a bit short on the oneday side of things but I thought he did a very decent jobldquoHe will improve and get better as the captainrdquo Dravid concluded