India’s head coach Rahul Dravid is delighted with the way the team is progressing into the forthcoming World Cup. India won the Asia Cup by beating Sri Lanka in the final by 10 wickets whereas they also defeated Australia by 2-1 in the three-match ODI series.
India has won six out of their last eight matches and they will look to continue the winning impetus in the upcoming World Cup. Team India has ticked the right boxes as a unit with both bat and ball and they will enter the ODI showpiece on a high.
The likes of Shubman Gill, Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, Hardik Pandya, Mohammed Siraj, and Kuldeep Yadav have been in prolific form.
“For people like Jasprit, Ashwin, Shreyas, KL, getting game time was important, and getting that against a competitive side is a good thing. The practice games are generally 15 vs 15 so it’s hard to get that level of intensity in those games,” Dravid said in the post-match press conference.
“Jasprit got a couple of games, and bowled his quota of 10 overs. Siraj suffered from a bug but got back and was able to bowl today. It was good to see how Ashwin bowled in the first two games. KL and his keeping through fifty overs, returning after 6 months, has been great. Shreyas has got some good knocks in the last couple of games. Really happy with how things are going and hopefully we can keep the momentum going into the World Cup.”
Shreyas Iyer, KL Rahul, and Jasprit Bumrah have made impressive returns from injury and Dravid feels it is a big positive for the team.
“There are always areas you want to improve on, and we have ticked a lot of boxes,” he stressed. “It’s nice to see that the guys who have been out with injury, been away from a while, from our perspective, they’ve been able to get some good cricket, been able to spend time in the middle, get some runs, take some wickets, but there are always little things that you can improve.
“It’s going to be a long, tough tournament. We’re constantly looking to improve as a team, even when we have results going our way.”
Dravid revealed the whole squad will assemble together for the warm-up match against England in Guwahati.
“We’ve had a few issues with viral (fever) going around the group. It was a balancing act in this game, because of people going home for personal reasons, and a team leaving for the Asian Games tonight, so some guys like Rutu and Tilak had to join that team. I’m expecting everybody to be there at Guwahati by 28th night or 29th early morning, and hopefully the bug going around the ground has cleared up as well.”
India will play their World Cup opening match against Australia in Chennai on October 8.
