The Indian team has used the three ODI series at home since January this year to narrow down the list of players who are part of their plans for the 2023 World Cup likely to be played in October-November. India will have played nine ODIs in 2023, all at home, by the time IPL 2023 gets underway and post that they will be embarking on a short tour of England (World Test Championship final) and West Indies before the Asia Cup (venue yet to be decided).
So with limited numbers of ODIs in their own conditions, the series against Sri Lanka, New Zealand and Australia have been vital to their plans, reveals head coach Rahul Dravid.
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“Probably not going to get too many more games in our conditions,” Dravid told media on Tuesday. “We had the opportunity to play in these conditions which is great. Yeah, coming out of the IPL to a large extent we are pretty clear about the kind of squad and the players we want. We have narrowed it down to 17-18 players.”
India are though are dealing with injury issues to few of their top stars including Jasprit Bumrah, Shreyas Iyer, Deepak Chahar among others. Dravid though allayed those fears saying they are in a good head space
“We have some guys who are recovering from injuries and will come into the frame based on their recovery. All in all, we are pretty much in good space. We are able to give those who we have zeroed in on as many playing opportunities,” he said.
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“There are a couple of different combinations that we would like to try. It is a big tournament, a long tournament in India, we want to have that flexibility in our squad. some times four fast bowlers, sometimes three spinners. Within the squad we will like to keep the options. just to ensure that we have covered all our bases for all conditions,” he added.
India will take on Australia in the third ODI on Wednesday with the three-match series currently locked at one-all.
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