India coach Rahul Dravid didn’t confirm anything about whether R Ashwin will be included in India’s World Cup 2023 squad or whether Akshar Patel has regained 100% fitness. September 28, 2023, is the last date for the teams to make changes and finalize the squad for the tournament.
R Ashwin made his return to India's ODI setup after more than 20 months and played in the first two ODIs against Australia. He and Washington Sundar were called up as backups after Akshar Patel suffered a quad injury in the Asia Cup 2023 game against Bangladesh.
India coach Rahul Dravid addressed the media after the third India vs. Australia ODI in Rajkot and talked about Ashwin’s performance and shed light on whether he would be selected for the World Cup or not.
"(For) Ashwin, it was really nice to see the way he bowled in the first two games. KL as well, the keeping right through the 50 overs, he is coming off after almost 6-7 months,” Dravid told reporters.
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However, Dravid was non-committal when it came to questions on Ashwin’s inclusion in India’s World Cup squad.
"We have to wait for an official confirmation or a decision on that. The NCA is in touch with the selectors and Ajit (Agarkar) so I will not make any comments on that. If there is any change you will get to hear about it officially, as of now there are no changes," Dravid said, hinting that Axar Patel will be retained in the 15-man squad.
Dravid further talked about the fitness of players who return from long layoffs due to injuries, in the Asia Cup and Australia ODI series. Jasprit Bumrah, KL Rahul, and Shreyas Iyer all made comebacks into the Indian team after undergoing surgery for their respective injuries.
"For all those guys game-time was important. The fact that they have been able to get that is I think something that we are much better off for it. Jassi has been able to play a couple of games and bowl his quota of 10 overs, Siraj (was) suffering from a little bit of a bug but he got back and was able to bowl.
Shreyas has played a couple of really good knocks in the last couple of games. We know we have to keep improving but also hope that we carry this momentum into the World Cup," the India coach added.
The India coach expects India's full-strength squad to assemble in Guwahati ahead of the first warm-up match against England on September 30.
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"The two practice or warm-up games, generally people play 15 versus 15, it is tough to sometimes get the intensity in those games but as we have seen in these three games, in hot conditions there has been a lot of intensity as well. There was a bit of juggling we had to manage in this game but I am hoping that we have got about a week, we have got a few days. We should have the full-strength squad, hopefully, the bug around the group has cleared out as well. It will be nice if that happens," the coach said.
Talking about the big loss in the Rajkot ODI, Dravid blamed it on giving away too many runs in the first half of the Australian innings. Rohit Sharma (81) and Virat Kohli (56) added 70 runs but the team lost the plot in the middle overs as Glenn Maxwell hurt them badly with 4/40.
"In the overall scheme of things probably 350 was 30 (runs) too many. We should have been chasing 320 if we had bowled better in the first half. We were on par when Virat and Rohit were batting. We needed one of the top three to get 130 or 140. In these chases, you need these kinds of scores.
Unfortunately, it did not happen, but a good thing from our perspective is that both of them batted well — that is a positive. They are coming off not playing cricket for a week so it was nice to get straight into it and get runs for us," he said.
Despite losing the third ODI, India pocketed the series 2-1.
(PTI inputs)
