Aiming to Pick a Full Strength One-Day International Squad Beginning in January : Rahul Dravid

The head coach of the Indian one-day international team, Rahul Dravid, is confident that India will have a full-strength ODI squad by the beginning of January. After that, India will play consistently for the next eight or nine months leading up to the World Cup being held in India in October and November.

Due to workload management-related permutations and combinations, India’s one-day international performance has been subpar, as seen by the team’s loss in consecutive series against New Zealand and Bangladesh despite fielding significantly different squads in each match.

When Rahul Dravid was asked about the difficulty of batting and bowling during the middle overs, he responded that it hasn’t been easy not having the whole team available.

“I suppose that from our point of view, it has not been an easy game to play. We do not have all of our players available. We are hoping that by the beginning of January, barring any injuries, we will have a complete team to compete in our home series.

“We have nine ODIs before IPL and hopefully, we will get to play a settled side in those games,” Dravid said at the post-match news conference. The nine ODIs include three matches against New Zealand, three matches against Sri Lanka, and three matches against Australia.

“Because there were two World Cups over the past two years, we put a lot of emphasis on Twenty20 competitions. We are going to put more of an emphasis on one-day international cricket over the next eight to ten months. Managing three different forms at once is not an easy task.

Dravid continued by saying that now that test matches are being played, the team’s white ball guys and other specialists will have some time to recuperate.