Bumrah's absence is a big loss: Dravid

INDORE: Jasprit Bumrah's absence is a severe blow to India in the ICC T20 World Cup 2022 to be held in Australia.

With India's bowling struggling off-late the pacer's absence will be sorely felt. "Bumrah's absence is a big loss, he's been a great player but it happens, it's an opportunity for someone else to stand up. We'll miss him, his personality around the group," said India's head coach Rahul Dravid after the conclusion of the India versus South Africa T20I series.

India registered consecutive bilateral series wins against Australia and South Africa ahead of the T20 World Cup and it was a much-needed win after India's below-par show in Asia Cup 2022 in UAE.

"Good to get the right results in both series. In this format, you need luck, things to go your way, especially in close games. We didn't have that in the Asia Cup, but had some luck during the Australia series. We were able to rotate the squad a bit, pleased with how it's gone overall," said Rahul Dravid.

India had a forgettable outing in the previous edition of the ICC T20 World Cup in UAE as they failed to even make it to the semi-final under Virat Kohli and now with a new captain and head coach the team will go with a different approach.

"We made a decision after the last T20 WC, sat down with Rohit, made a conscious effort to be positive. We have the batsmanship to play positively, we had to structure our squad with batting depth. Pleased with the way we've come along, " said Rahul Dravid.

India went on to lose the third and final T20I of the three-match series against South Africa but they went went on to win the series 2-1. "Today was an opportunity to give guys who haven't had much batting to get some time. It's hard on guys like Rishabh, Dinesh. Wish both of them could've continued, they were batting beautifully. 4-5 overs more and it could've been a lot closer. Happy with the way we kept going, Harshal and Deepak and the other guys," said Dravid.