The Indian head coach Rahul Dravid pointed out the importance of managing the workload of all-format players like Rohit Sharma is key ahead of the T20 World Cup later this year. Dravid said the communication between him, the selectors, and the players is quite clear and it’s important that the likes of Rohit, Virat Kohli, and Jasprit Bumrah are peaking at the right time in major tournaments. In fact, the selectors rested the trio from the T20I series as they will join the Test squad for the one-off Test against England in July.

Notably, India will be hosting South Africa for 5 T20Is from June 9 to 19 across 5 venues in the country. KL Rahul will lead India in the absence of Rohit Sharma while Rishabh Pant has been named the vice-captain for the 18-man squad, which has been training in New Delhi ahead of the T20I series opener.

During the pre-match press conference, Rahul Dravid said, “We (Rohit and I) are in touch. (KL) Rahul has captained before, we are clear on a lot of things. Rohit is one of our all-format players and it is unrealistic to expect all (all format players) to be available for every series. We need to ensure that they are fit for all the big tournaments, we need to manage them before that to ensure that they are peaking then.”

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He further explained, “With the kind of busy schedule, we have to understand there are times we need to rest our big players. We won’t be able to field our strongest team all the time. It gives youngsters opportunities and increases the depth of our squad and gives us an opportunity to assess how good they are. It is a balance between managing the workload of some of the players, especially those who have been a part of all three formats of the game for us in the last six months.”

Meanwhile, Rahul Dravid stressed that they aren’t currently focusing on setting new records but are determined to follow the process and keep winning every match they play in the lead-up to the T20 World Cup.

India needs to win the opening game of the series against South Africa to make the new world record for the most successive wins in the shortest format of the game. India is currently tied on 12 successive wins along with Afghanistan and Romania and a victory in the series opener in New Delhi will help them set the record.

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Talking about the same, Rahul Dravid said, “We have not really thought of or paid attention to the records. It is nice to win games. But for me, a lot of this is about not worrying about creating records or numbers, we want to win every game we play. We want to prepare and practice well and get to the field with our tactics right and try executing them. If it happens, it is great.”