Coach Rahul Dravid denies feeling pressure of trying to win an ICC trophy

Head coach Rahul Dravid on Monday insisted his team is not feeling any pressure going into the World Test Championship final against Australia despite not having won an ICC title in ten years However the former India captain said it would be nice to win the trophy as it is something his team has worked towards over the last two yearsIndia lost the inaugural WTC final to New Zealand in 2021 and have been guilty of faltering in knockout gamesNo not at all I mean we dont feel any pressure in terms of trying to win an ICC trophy Of course it would be nice to do it It would be certainly nice to be able to win an ICC tournament But also in the context of things you look at this and you see this is the culmination of two years of workIts a culmination of a lot of success that gets you here So theres a lot of positives to take from that to see where you stand on the table Winning series in Australia drawing series here being very competitive everywhere that this team has played in the world over the last five or six yearsI think those are things that will never change just because you have or you dont have an ICC trophy Thats really the bigger picture said DravidAjinkya Rahane is set to play his first Test in 18 months and a failure in the game could potentially be careerending Dravid had a word of advice for the experienced batterAlso Read Aussie captain Steve Smith fears for future of Test cricket ahead of WTC finalFirstly its good to have him Weve had a few injuries which have probably led to him having the opportunity to come back into the squad Great for us to have someone of his quality backHe brings obviously a lot of that experience he brings proven performance in overseas conditions Even in England hes played some terrific innings for usHe brings terrific catching in the slips as well to the group He just brings his personality to the group as well which is really important Hes led the team to considerable success And again I wouldnt want him to approach this as just a oneoffDravid said the 82 Test veteran might go on to play many more fiveday games for the countrySometimes you get dropped from teams and you make a comeback and you can play for as long as youre playing well and as long as youre performing Its not written in stone or rule that you only get one match He puts in a good performance really shows what hes gotWho knows even when people come back from injury you never know what can happen So again from my point of view its not really only about this match Yes this match is important but then in the larger context of things theres a lot of cricket to be played further down the road as well he saidCheteshwar Pujara has scored tons of runs in county cricket in England over the past couple of years While his teammates were playing in the IPL he was piling on the runs for SussexWeve had conversations with Pujee about captaincy about obviously batting but also he leads Sussex So hes also got a good handle on things in terms of the kind of tactics and the strategy thats used by a lot of the county bowlers that hes played withSo weve had some conversations and discussions obviously with him in and around that and well see how we can maybe incorporate some of that Doesnt drastically change some of the basics of the game They always remain the same said DravidThe Oval will hosts its first ever Test in June and the conditions might not be as batting friendly as they are later in the English summer However Dravid is not reading too much into itWe just have to react to what we see in terms of the conditions and how it plays out in the middle And hopefully we have the resources and the ability to deal with whatever comes in front of usFranchise cricket around the world has jeopardized the future of the fiveday game with only few nations committed to Test cricket When it comes to the traditional format Dravid feels the more the betterI really hope that because of things like the World Test Championship when you have some context to a lot of these to a lot of the bilateral games not that honestly not that they dont have context in itselfI mean anytime you play for your country play against someone else theres always context theres always you always want to win those series But you know really hope that it will encourage a lot more teams to be able to potentially play a lot more Test cricket or to be able to find a way to play a lot more Test cricketI know it is complicated and that its hard to go into depth in a press conference and there are a variety of reasons why that is probably not happening both in terms of time finances there are many things that go into itBut certainly wed like to see a lot more Test cricket personally at least Id like to see a lot more Test cricket being played he addedWith PTI inputs