After the 2-1 series victory over Australia that ended
with an Indian loss in a Rajkot dead rubber, India Head Coach Rahul Dravid has
stated that he is satisfied with India’s preparedness for the ICC Men’s Cricket
World Cup 2023.
“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.
“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.”
Dravid said he was satisfied with the performance of
his players returning from injury and other breaks. “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 also confirmed that the squad, which currently
isn’t together, will assemble in Guwahati for the first of the warm-up fixtures
against England.
“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.”