Indian captain Rohit Sharma, Rinku Singh and Coach Rahul Dravid throughout a web observe session forward of the T20 Match in opposition to Afghanistan at PCA Ground in Mohali on January 10, 2024.
| Photo Credit: R V Moorthy
Head coach Rahul Dravid on Wednesday admitted that Indian gamers will not get too many probabilities to play as a bunch forward of the T20I World Cup, and mentioned they wanted to stay mentally flexible forward of the marquee occasion in June.
The three-match collection in opposition to Afghanistan starting right here on Thursday will be India’s remaining T20 International project forward of the worldwide showpiece.
In that context, Dravid mentioned the administration can even have to rely a bit on the IPL 2024 for the group choice.
“After the last T20I World Cup (2022) we prioritised the ODI World Cup. But we don’t have that many T20I games after that (ODI WC),” mentioned Dravid in his pre-match convention.
“So, this T20I WC is slightly different in the sense that (there’s) not a lot of time to prepare for that. We have to rely on the cricket that we have and also a little bit on the IPL.” Dravid emphasised the need for gamers to stay adaptive in conditions the place they might not collectively get recreation time.
“We might not get too many chances to play together, so we will have to work around that. You just need to adapt and be flexible. We had a good preparation leading into the one-day WC. Even in the last T20I World Cup, we had a lot of games together as a group. This time we won’t have that (many matches) probably, but it is all about adapting while going ahead,” he added.
Some of the premier gamers like pacers Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj and all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja will not be enjoying the three-match T20I collection in opposition to the Afghans.
Does their absence pose a hindrance to the group’s ambition to have as much collective actual match-time as doable? Dravid thought it was additionally necessary to give the gamers a break contemplating the quantity of cricket being performed.
“It is impossible for all the players to play all the time, especially for the players who are playing all the three formats. We had to prioritise what is important.
Bumrah, Siraj and Jadeja have missed out from this series because keeping in mind the five-Test home series against England. So, we are always playing that juggling act a little bit over the last two years,” he signed off.
