T20 World Cup: KL Rahul is a fantastic player, has our full support, says Rahul Dravid

India head coach Rahul Dravid has said he and captain Rohit Sharma are going to back the struggling KL Rahul ahead of their Super 12s clash with Bangladesh in the T20 World Cup 2022.

Rahul, who has two T20I centuries for India, has been in poor form having scored 4, 9, and 9 so far in the three games. However, Dravid has said the World Cup has been challenging and Rahul is still suited best to open for India.

"I think he's a fantastic player and he's got a proven track record. He's done really well. I thought he's been batting superbly. These things can happen in a T20 game sometimes. It's been tough -- it's not been that easy for the sort of top-order batsmen. This tournament has been pretty challenging," Dravid said while addressing reporters at the press conference on Tuesday.

"I thought he was superb -- maybe a lot of you were not there, but in the practice game against Australia with Mitchell Starc and Patrick Cummins. It was a pretty good attack, and I thought he batted superbly that day, to get 50 or 60. I'm not sure exactly how much. Quite a few," added Dravid in the same conference.

The former India captain went on to add that Rahul is "actually playing well" and they are aware that Rahul is "really well suited for these kinds of conditions, these kinds of pitches."

"So he's actually playing really well. Just hoping it all clicks together over the next three or four games, and yeah, we know his quality, we know his ability, and he's really well suited for these kinds of conditions, these kinds of pitches. He's got a good all-around game. He's got a very good strong back-foot game which is obviously very much required in these conditions.

"So yeah, we're pretty confident and happy with the way he's hitting it," Dravid said further.

Speaking of the conversations with Rahul, Dravid revealed that the team has not faltered in his confidence in him.

"It's hard to get into exact details of what conversations you have with your players, but rest assured, I think both in words and in action, I think over the last year he knows he has our support. He's known that.

"There's been a lot of clarity about what our side is going to be, what our squad is going to be coming into this tournament, and we haven't wavered from that for a very long time. Yes, because we play a lot of cricket, you might see a lot of different people playing in different situations, in different games. There have been a lot of injuries, including him. He's had phases where he's unfortunately been injured," the head coach said.

T20 World Cup 2022: A call on DK will be taken closer to the game, says Rahul Dravid

In India's previous match in the T20 World Cup 2022, which ended in a loss against South Africa, wicketkeeper-batsman Dinesh Karthik walked off because of an injury, making way for Rishabh Pant to don the gloves. Dravid confirmed on Tuesday that Karthik was fine and the management would take a call to whether to play him or not closer to the game.

"He's pulled up pretty well today. It was unfortunate to have that spasm when he jumped to collect a bouncer. I think when he landed badly, he landed in a way that I think he just hurt his back a little bit. But with treatment this morning he's pulled up pretty well. He's come to training. So we'll be assessing it.

"We'll see how it goes, and we'll see how he pulls up tomorrow morning after a good practice session today. We'll put him through his paces and ensure that we've given him a good workout and then see how he pulls up tomorrow morning before making a final decision," added Dravid.

Speaking of India's death bowling, Dravid says it was encouraging to see youngsters like Arshdeep Singh step up on occasion.

"Look, it's an area of our game that we've wanted to look to address, to look to get better at. Obviously, Bums [Jasprit Bumrah] was one of our guys who was penciled into bowl two of those overs. It was really heartening for us to see the way young Arshdeep Singh has developed over the last few months.

"If you were to ask me in November when I first took over and I had a list of bowlers in my mind, sure, Arshdeep was there, but he was -- certainly he hadn't had that kind of IPL. He had had one good IPL. But the way he's come along after that, he's come and forced his way into the side and done really well. So that's a fantastically heartening thing to see," India's head coach said further.

India respect Bangladesh a lot, we believe they are a good team says Dravid

Meanwhile, Bangladesh captain Shakib Al Hasan shocked everyone when he said if his side were to beat India, it would be an upset. Reacting to the same, Dravid said that this World Cup has shown that one cannot take any team lightly.

"I think we respect them a lot. I think they're a very good team. I think this format and this World Cup has really shown us that honestly, you can't take any team lightly. Ireland showed that against England. We've seen enough games in this competition," Dravid, who succeeded Ravi Shastri as head coach, said.

"I think the fact that it is already such a short format. 20 overs is such a short format of the game. The margins of victory and defeat sometimes even if they're 12 runs, or 15 runs, it's actually just two hits. It's two hits one way or the other, and actually, that's the game. So it is already a shortened sort of rushed, noisy format, but it's very difficult to sometimes say who's a clear favourite in some of these games.

"On top of that, I think these conditions. I think these conditions have actually leveled the playing field to a large extent because the boundaries are certainly bigger, and some of those big hits which you sometimes expect in the subcontinent to just go for six and you just know that I'll be able to make up those runs, later on, it's not happening that easily. People are getting out," explained Dravid.

"I think it's really been a fantastic tournament from that perspective. Apart from the weather, I think it's been a terrific tournament in terms of just the nature of the games. No, we certainly don't take Bangladesh lightly. Our preparation, our planning will be as meticulous as it was against South Africa at Perth. No different," said Dravid.

Following their loss to South Africa on Sunday (Oct. 30), India have dropped to second place in the Group 2 table. A victory against Bangladesh and Zimbabwe in the last two games will take them through to the semis.

India and Bangladesh are scheduled to face off against each other on Wednesday (Nov. 1) at Adelaide Oval.