India Head Coach Rahul Dravid has said that he is content with India’s preparation going into the ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup 2023, after the 2-1 series win against Australia that culminated in an Indian defeat in a Rajkot dead rubber.
“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.”