Doing something different for the World Cup… Dravid opened the cards before the third ODI
Dravid was asked if he had achieved what he set out to do in the nine home ODIs with the World Cup in mind. So he said, ‘Yes to a certain extent. Irrespective of the result of tomorrow’s match, we have got a lot of clarity from these nine matches. We need to continue this clarity. The Indian coach said, ‘For us it is now about the combination of different playing XIs. We have to make sure that we can change the combination if needed during the World Cup. We want to make sure that there are no surprises during the World Cup.
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Big statement on Iyer and Surya as well
The head coach regretted the absence of injured Shreyas Iyer, who is the number four batsman in the World Cup plans. Dravid, however, showed sympathy for his replacement Suryakumar Yadav despite the poor performance. Surya returned to the pavilion without opening an account in two matches. Rahul said, ‘Obviously Shreyas’ injury is unfortunate. He is probably one of those guys who bats at number four. I am not worried about the performance of Surya, who replaced him in the team. He got out on two very good balls. Surya does not have the experience of ODI cricket like T20.
This phase of domestic ODIs is very important as Indian players will now play in IPL 2023 and after that will be part of the World Test Championship final. At the same time, after all this, Rohit Sena will tour West Indies and play a possible Asia Cup in Dubai. Dravid said, ‘We will not get many matches in home conditions now. By the time the IPL is over, to a large extent, we will be clear about the team and the players. We have narrowed it down to 17-18 players. Key players of the team like Jasprit Bumrah, Shreyas Iyer, Pramukh Krishna, Deepak Chahar are troubled by injuries but Dravid insisted that the team is in good shape. “We have a few players who are recovering from injuries and once they recover, they will stake claim for a place in the team. There are a few different combinations we’d love to try. It is a big tournament, we want flexibility in our team. Sometimes they want to go with four fast bowlers and sometimes with three spinners. We would like to have options within the team.