Team India head coach Rahul Dravid put a rest on the concerns around India’s batting in the ongoing ODI series against Australia and backed Suryakumar Yadav, who has got two first-ball ducks so far at the crucial No.4 position. Dravid asked for patience for Suryakumar, a day before the final ODI.
“Obviously, it’s unfortunate for Shreyas to get injured – he’s one of those guys we think will bat for us at No.4 and he has been given a lot of time in that position. Not really concerned so much about Suryakumar. You have got two first-ballers against two pretty good balls,” Dravid said of the two Starc deliveries – at 145 and 144 kmph – that dismissed Suryakumar Yadav.
However, Suryakumar Yadav is going through a rough patch now. But he has a stunning record in T20 cricket but he is yet to get successful in 50-over cricket.
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“One of the things about Surya is he is also learning the 50-over game a little bit. The T20 game is slightly different. Even though you hadn’t played for India for a long time, in T20 cricket, he played nearly 10 years of IPL – a tournament which is like international cricket. He has played a lot of high-pressure T20 games but in one-day cricket, there’s no equivalent tournament in domestic cricket, you’ll have to play Vijay Hazare and all that. Even though he has played a lot of T20 cricket, I think he has not played a lot of one-day cricket. We just need to give him some time and be patient with him. We certainly see the upside of him doing well, which is very good for the side,” Dravid again said.
The head coach has also opened up on the team they have selected for their World Cup preparation in these eight ODIs as well. However, they would love to play more ODIs to prepare for the upcoming mega event.
“We have got a lot more clarity at the end of these nine games irrespective of what happens tomorrow,” said Dravid on Tuesday. “We need to keep building on that clarity. For us, it is now the different playing XI combinations and just ensuring that we play different combinations at times just to ensure that we are able to do that in the World Cup and we are not surprised by anything. It’s hard to add on games, especially at that time of the year. In India it’s monsoon. It’s really our off season, we are probably not going to get too many more games in our conditions.”
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“We have almost sort of narrowed it down to 17-18 players. We have a few guys who are sort of recovering from injuries and might come into the mix, depending on the time frame of their recoveries and how long it takes for them to come back. But all in all, we are pretty much in a good space, we are pretty clear about the kind of team we want to play. Hopefully, we are able to give these guys who we have zeroed in on, as many playing opportunities as we can,” Rahul Dravid concluded.
