India Head Coach Rahul Dravid has stated that he is satisfied with the team’s preparation for the ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup 2023. The Men in Blue seemed to tick all their boxes heading into the marquee event, as the team dominated the proceedings in ODI cricket starting from the Asia Cup 2023 in Sri Lanka.
The Men in Blue haven’t won an ICC trophy in ten years, but fans are hopeful that the drought will end on home soil. Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, Hardik Pandya, and Ravindra Jadeja form one of the most experienced batting orders in the competition.
Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Shami, and Mohammed Siraj are potent with the new ball and invariably pick up wickets alongside Kuldeep Yadav posing a huge threat to the opponents in the middle overs. Besides, the Men in Blue have got their backups ready for the impending cricketing carnival.
Speaking to the media after the third game against Australia, Rahul Dravid is pleased to see Bumrah, Ashwin, Iyer, and Rahul getting some game time ahead of the World Cup.
Dravid feels that the Australia series is more important in terms of preparation. He reckons that the team has got the much-needed momentum going into the mega event on home soil.
“For people like Jasprit, Ashwin, Shreyas, and 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,” he stated.
“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.” Rahul Dravid said.
The Indian team will have a long World Cup campaign on home soil because they will play their matches in nine different cities and they will be one of the favourites to win the championship.
The 36-year-old Rohit has the chance to become the third Indian captain to lift the ODI World Cup after legendary Kapil Dev and MS Dhoni.
