India head coach Rahul Dravid gave insights about the plans for men in blue ahead of the upcoming ODI World Cup 2023. The marquee event which will be hosted by India will be played later this year in October-November. Dravid discussed about Team India's probable squad and what are their plans for the global event.
Rahul said that they are clear about the squad and how India who are currently playing the ODI series against Australia had the opportunity to build the side they wanted over the last few months.
"Probably, we’ll not get many more games in our conditions. But we’ve had the opportunity over the last few months to play in these conditions, which is great. I think to a large extent we are pretty clear as to the squad, and the players we want.
"We’ve narrowed it down to 17-18 players, we have a few guys who are recovering from injuries and might come into the mix, depending on the time frame of their recoveries and how long it takes for them to come back.
"All in all, I think we are pretty much in a good space. We’re pretty clear about the kind of team we want to play in. And, hopefully we can give these guys who we’ve zeroed in on, as many playing opportunities as we can. If it’s in India, it's great, but even if it's not in India, we just want to give as many opportunities as we can to build our side," Rahul said.
He spoke about the importance of flexibility in the team as they will be playing in nine different cities.
"Within our team of 16 players, there will be a couple of different combinations to try and see, because it’s a big tournament, it’s a long tournament in India. We’re playing in nine different cities, nine different conditions, so you just want to have flexibility in your squad as well, to be able to play sometimes four fast bowlers, sometimes play three spinners.
"Within the squad, we’d want to look at different options to ensure that we’ve covered all bases for all conditions.”
Dravid also backed Suryakumar Yadav and said that he needs to be given chances to play more ODI games.
"Not really concerned about Surya in a couple of games. He got two first-ballers, which were two pretty good balls ,” Dravid said.
"I think we need to be a little bit more understanding as well. One of the things about Surya is that he’s also learning the 50-over game a little bit," he added.
Also Read:
