- Rahul Dravid and Rohit Sharma are looking forward to the combinations for the team of the T20 World Cup.
- We want to give everyone a fair chance: Rahul Dravid.
Finding the ideal mix can be difficult, and there is no fixed method. Still, Team India’s head coach Rahul Dravid believes he and skipper Rohit Sharma are confident in their selection for the T20 World Cup in Australia, which begins in less than eight months.
The former player, who took over after Ravi Shastri after India’s group-stage defeat at the T20 World Cup in the United Arab Emirates last year, will face his first major test in Australia. Dravid stated that he and Rohit are aware of the best team composition for the mega-event.
‘I believe Rohit and I have a terrific working relationship., the selectors, and the management,” Dravid said after India’s 17-run victory against the Windies in the third T20I on Sunday, completing a 3-0 series sweep.
“I don’t believe there is a set formula.” However, we’re pretty sure of the balance and combination (for the T20 World Cup) … We’re just reorganizing the staff a little bit to accommodate it, as well as balancing individual workloads.
‘With the kind of individuals who are in the running, we have a perfect sense of the kind of abilities we’re aiming for in Australia.’ Not everything is fixed in stone, but we want to offer everyone an equal opportunity to claim those slots,”
he continued.
The T20I series against the Windies was India’s first in a busy schedule leading up to the World Cup, and they will play Sri Lanka in a three-match series in four days.
In the absence of certain Team India regulars, including opener KL Rahul and fast bowler Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammed Shami, India allowed youngsters like Ishan Kishan, Ruturaj Gaikwad, and Avesh Khan the chance to build a claim in the World Cup-bound squad.
With Virat Kohli and Rishabh Pant on a 10-day bio-bubble break, India tested out Shreyas Iyer in the third and final T20I, while Kishan doubled as the wicketkeeper. According to Dravid, the entire process revolved around having backups ready.
‘It’s never easy in the times we live in… “You don’t want to throw your net too wide. We also don’t want to limit ourselves to only 15 players. “I don’t feel there’s a statute of limitations when you can say, ‘OK, now that’s the squad you want to focus on.” Dravid added, “We want to give people opportunity so that by the time we reach the Tournament, several of our players have played 10-15-20 games.”
“It offers Rohit an opportunity to play them and bowl them in the positions he wants, but he has to balance that with the reality that we need a few back-ups in case of injury,”
he continued.
Kishan batted first in all three matches of the series, but his 71 runs at an average of 23.66 did not excite the Jharkhand wicketkeeper-batter. Ruturaj Gaikwad, Maharashtra’s ‘run-machine,’ opened with Kishan in the final game, while Rohit elected to bat at No. 4, but the partnership failed to score large.
“This is a difficult format,” Dravid stated that the young players would not be evaluated based on a single series or terrible game. We are requesting that they participate in high-risk cricket. We constantly ask that they play shots. And we don’t make a judgment on them based on some games. It’s not how it’s done; it’s how it’s done.
“We strive to give folks as many consistent runs as possible.” We’re working on providing them chances to play rather than judging them on a game-by-game or series-by-series basis.”
Edited by: Mahi Gupta
Published by: Vishakha Verma
