SL v IND 2021: WATCH- Rahul Dravid says it is unrealistic to expect all uncapped players to get game time

Dravid also said this will a great experience for all players whether they play or not.

By Jatin Sharma - 27 Jun, 2021

India head coach for the tour of Sri Lanka, Rahul Dravid, on Sunday mentioned that it was unrealistic to expect that every uncapped player picked for the tour which has 3 ODIs and 3 T20Is will get a game. The team is captained by Shikhar Dhawan with Bhuvneshwar Kumar as vice-captain.

The Indian team will play all six games at the R Premadasa Stadium in Colombo with the first of the three ODIs beginning on July 13 onwards. Before that, India will get time to play a couple of intra-squad T20Is and one ODI to get some match practice.

I think it's probably going to be unrealistic to expect us in a short tour like this with three games, or three one-dayers to give everyone an opportunity...and the selectors will be there as well," Dravid declared in the pre-departure press conference.

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This is a golden opportunity for uncapped and new India players to stake a claim for a berth in the ICC T20 World Cup 2021 likely to be played in UAE, hosted by the BCCI.

 

"There are a lot of people in this squad who are pushing for places or looking to cement their places in the World Cup coming up, but I think the key goal of everyone in the squad and in the team...is to try and win the series.

The primary objective is to try and win the series and hopefully people get the opportunity to put in some really good performances. These are the only three games before the World Cup. I am sure that you know the selectors and management would have a pretty fair idea by now as to what is the kind of squad that they are looking for,” Dravid added.

With the Test team in England at the moment, Dravid said this tour can't be looked at as an India A tour where most players get to play.

"There is an opportunity for maybe one or two places that, maybe, the team management or the selectors might be looking for, spots that they might want to fill, and give them a few more options. That would be the goal probably over the next three T20s and to win the series.

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It is slightly different (from the A tour). When you're at a developmental level all of those tours are slightly different from something like this. It will be a great learning experience for the young kids even if they don't get to play," said Dravid.

Dravid also spoke about having a talk with the two selectors Debasis Mohanty and Abey Kuruvilla, who will be traveling with the India team to Sri Lanka.

There would be a couple of selectors who would be traveling with us. Once we get there we will be interacting with them and see what they are thinking We have had a little bit of contact with the management out there (in the UK)...haven't disturbed them during the World Test Championship but we'll probably touch base with them sometime over the next couple of weeks and see what their thoughts are," he added.

(PTI inputs)

By Jatin Sharma - 27 Jun, 2021

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