Port of Spain: Till Saturday morning, the Queen’s Park Oval was one of India’s most memorable overseas venues. It was here that the Indians had successfully chased a then-record 403 on their 1976 tour and Sunil Gavaskar’s deeds had prompted locals to suggest that the name of the ground be changed to Gavaskar Oval.

By evening, though, an abject surrender resulted in India adding a chapter of shame to that feeling of nostalgia.

Rahul Dravid struggled to defend himself at the post-match press conference on Saturday, but the morning after, Greg Chappell presented a brave front. “The loss was obviously disappointing. The start couldn’t have been much harsher than this. This is a sort of thing we didn’t want to happen, but…

“No one is more disappointed than the boys. But there’s no point worrying about it as that won’t help. We’ve got to get back into the same frame of mind as before. There have been occasions when we have lost and bounced back and there’s no reason why we can’t repeat it. We’ve got to focus on things in our control.

“It’s a challenge and that is what the World Cup is all about. There will be lot of teams facing similar situations. May be, it’s come a bit too early for us. We’ve got to stop worrying about what has happened and focus on the things we can do. Getting the basics right.

“We’ve got to stop worrying about the outcome. Being scared won’t help us. We’ve to be positive knowing well that a false step can mean the end,” the Indian coach remarked.

Chappell said he hadn’t heard about the reaction back home but can guess what may be happening. He supported the decision to bat first and felt the wicket didn’t play a role in the defeat.

“It was the right decision to bat. It wasn’t a bad wicket. The bottomline is we didn’t bat well enough. Still 191 should have been defended. We succumbed to the pressure as Bangladesh played with courage and passion,” he said.

Bombarded with questions, Dravid tried to put the blame on the wicket. “Coming in a World Cup match this was obviously very disappointing. We could have batted better. The wicket seamed a little more than expected.”

Does he regret the decision to bat?

“It looked a good wicket. We decided to bat first, put runs on the board and make it difficult for them to chase. Things didn’t go our way, and in the end, we were at least 30/40 runs short,” felt the captain.

“This wicket had a dry look about it at the start, but did turn out to be a bit damp and stayed that way a bit too long. When we had a look at it we thought it would have been a good opportunity to bat.”

Was it his own decision to bat first? “Everyone looked and said it was a good wicket. We all felt batting first would be ideal. There will be ifs and buts as to what would have happened if we had put Bangladesh in,” Dravid said.

Asked if this would go down as the lowest point of his career, Dravid said: “It will be up there with some of the other defeats I’ve had as a player and captain. Whether this is the most disappointing will only be known after the match against Sri Lanka. If we can pull ourselves out of this rut, we can forget this as a bad dream and move ahead.”

Meanwhile, Dravid and Zaheer became the first Indians to be dope-tested in this World Cup.