India team head coach Rahul Dravid has once and for all settled the debate about the middle order of the Men in Blue side, especially in the ODI format, leading up to the Asia Cup 2023 and the ICC World Cup.
The Indian team was criticized for experimenting in the middle order as with KL Rahul and Shreyas Iyer being out of action due to injuries, the management sent five different players for these two spots in the West Indies series.
The likes of Hardik Pandya, Axar Patel, and Sanju Samson played at No.4, while Ravindra Jadeja, Suryakumar Yadav, and Pandya played at five in the three ODIs.
With Asia Cup 2023 just a few days away, coach Rahul Dravid opened up on the experimentation approach, saying the team always knew who the players that will be playing at No.4 and No.5 in big tournaments.
"This word experimentation gets thrown out a lot, without sometimes thought through. It's not that we are trying to experiment with something for the sake of experiment. Sometimes there are specific reasons why you have to do something. There was a lot of talk that we didn't have clarity over No.4 and No.5.
But I could have told you 18 or 19 months ago about who were the three candidates we were looking at No.4 and 5. It was always between KL Rahul, Shreyas Iyer, and Rishabh Pant for those spots," Rahul said in a press conference on Tuesday.
“It's unfortunate that all three of them got injured in the space of two months. Nobody can calculate the odds then. All three who were pushing for these spots suffered serious injuries. So you have to put other people in that position," he added.
India is playing Pakistan in their first Asia Cup 2023 game on Saturday (September 2) in Pallekele before taking on Nepal in the other group fixture on Monday.
But Dravid confirmed that KL Rahul is set to miss both games as he will not be flying with the team to Sri Lanka owing to a niggle. According to Dravid, a call on Rahul's participation in the Super Four stage, should India qualify, will be taken on September 4.
"He has had a really good week with us, really trained well, he is progressing well on the route we want to take but he will be unavailable for the Kandy leg of the trip. The NCA will be looking after him for the next few days while we are traveling. We will reassess on the 4th and then take it from there. But the signs are looking good and he is progressing well,” Dravid said.
Dravid also brushed aside suggestions that Rahul might be underprepared for the marquee event in October in India.
"The way we are looking at it is just two less games that he is going to miss. Both he and Shreyas are in the same boat. He is batting well, keeping well, he is doing everything, it's just a slightly more cautious approach leading into the World Cup.
He will have a couple of match simulations over the next few days which will give him longer time out there in the middle. We are hoping that it's just two games that he misses and should be available for the latter part of the tour, there is an Australia series as well. I'm not too worried about it. Both he and Shreyas are experienced players,” Dravid added.
India will fly out to Sri Lanka on August 30, one day after completing their training camp in Alur.
(PTI/IndiaTV News inputs)
