Indian head coach Rahul Dravid revealed that the team management is not too worried about the outside noise, as they will try to look at the bigger picture ongoing into the ODI World Cup year. Team India is still working on the players, who have the potential to make it to the India squad for a mega event later this year.
India opted to rest their senior players Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli as they gave a chance to fringe Indian players in the 2nd ODI against West Indies but the move proved to be costly one for the Men in Blue as they suffered a six-wicket loss to home team in Barbados, as they outplayed India in all three departments.
Speaking to the media after the team’s loss against West Indies, Rahul Dravid said that they are not too worried about the opinions of others, as they look to give an opportunity to the talented youngsters from the country and admitted that the team was disappointed with the final score as they could have tried to set a competitive total on a tricky wicket.
“We are not too worried about others’ opinions, these are the talented boys from our country, they all have performed and come here. It is up to them to take the opportunity when they are given the opportunity.
“We were a little disappointed, we knew it was a tricky wicket and not an easy wicket to bat on but we needed to somehow get to 230-240 which could have been a very good score. We lost wickets in the middle and were 50-60 runs short,” Rahul Dravid said.
Asking to bat first, Indian openers Ishan Kishan and Shubman Gill applied themselves in a tricky wicket in Barbados before losing their wickets in quick succession and the Indian middle order failed to capitalize on the opportunity, as they were bowled for 181 runs in their batting innings give no real chance for the Indian bowlers to defend the total.
We Cannot Take Our Chances As We Have To Try Out Other People – Rahul Dravid
Rahul Dravid feels that this last chance for the team management to try out fringe players, who can make it into the India squad for the World Cup and reckons that the team is running out of time to get the team ready for the Asia Cup and World Cup and believes that team needs to try new individual with many players being uncertain to return from injury.
“This was our last chance to be able to try out our players; we have got a few of our players who are injured, who are in the NCA. You know, with months to go for the world cup or Asia Cup, we are kind of running out of time in a lot of ways, and we are hopeful that some of him will be at least fit for the Asia Cup and the World Cup.
“But we cannot take our chances as we have to try out other people so that in the worst case scenario they have game time behind them,” Rahul Dravid added.
Team India has struggled with a spate of injuries in recent months, which include Jasprit Bumrah, KL Rahul, Rishabh Pant, Shreyas Iyer, and Prasidh Krishna and the fitness of the key players would be crucial for the Indian team going forward in the next three months.