Team India's head coach on Tuesday dropped a big hint on the team’s squad for the upcoming ODI World Cup. While addressing the media on the eve of the third One-Day International against Australia, Dravid revealed that the team management has already narrowed down to 17-18 names and may add a few players who are still recovering from their injuries. The head coach also said that irrespective of what happens in the third ODI, the team management will continue to rotate these players.
Dravid also accepted that the management won’t shy away from trying different combinations but emphasized that these different combinations will involve those 17-18 players.
"I think, to a large extent, we are pretty clear about the squad and players we want," Dravid said at a press conference. "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 timeframe 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 as many playing opportunities as we can. If in India, great, but even if not in India, it's just [a matter of ensuring that] they get as many opportunities as you can [give them] to build a side."
"Within our 15 or 16 players, there are a couple of different combinations that we'd like to try and see which one's working," Dravid said. "It [World Cup] is a big tournament, it's a long tournament in India, and we are playing in nine different cities and nine different conditions.
“So you just want to have that flexibility in your squad as well, to be able to play sometimes four fast bowlers, sometimes three spinners. Just you want to have that flexibility. Within the squad we'd like to sort of look at different options, just to ensure that we have covered all our bases for all conditions.”
Dravid backs Suryakumar Yadav
The India head coach also backed under fire Suryakumar Yadav saying that the batter has not played enough ODI cricket yet and people need to be patient with him. Notably, Yadav has registered two golden ducks in the two ODIs played so far.
"Not really concerned so much about Suryakumar," Dravid said. "He got two first-ballers against two pretty good balls. 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 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.”