He is more than happy with the takeaways from the nine home ODIs that Indian team has played and has already narrowed his World Cup core team to 17–18 players, head coach Rahul Dravid said on the eve of the series decider against Australia.
India are going into the decider having already played eight home games — three versus Sri Lanka, three versus New Zealand and three against Australia finishing on Wednesday.
Did he achieve what he had set out to in nine home ODIs, keeping World Cup in mind? “We have, to a large extent. We have a lot more clarity at the end of these nine games, irrespective of what happens tomorrow. We need to keep building on that clarity.
“For us, it is now the different playing XI combinations and just ensuring that we play different combinations at times just to ensure that we are able to do that in the World Cup and we are not surprised by anything in the World Cup,” Dravid told mediapersons here on Tuesday.
The head coach rued the absence of injured Shreyas Iyer, who had been earmarked to bat at No. 4 in the World Cup. The coach at the same time was sympathetic towards Suryakumar Yadav, who hasn’t yet set the ODI stage on fore unlike in the T20 format.
“Obviously, it is unfortunate for Shreyas to get injured. He is probably one of those guys who would bat at No. 4 and be given a lot of time at that position. If you notice we have stuck to the people in positions. For two years leading into this run, there is a lot of T20 cricket played and we did not have a lot of one-day cricket and if there are injuries and all that, we do have options.”
But does Surya’s first-ball ducks isn’t really worrying Dravid.