Key players will play in IPL unless injury concerns, Indian coach says
Ahead of his ODI series against New Zealand, India will use his ODI for the third time in Indore on Tuesday to try out some players. Head coach Rahul Dravid was eager to debut local hero Rajat Patidar, but insisted on giving all players enough playing time to give the team the full experience.
At the same time, without losing sight of his T20 World Championships next year, the key is a balance in terms of rotating his players and keeping them fresh from October for his ODI World Championships in November. We also emphasized finding the . From that perspective, IPL performance remains a key criterion and if cricketers do not get injured, they can still compete in the league, Dravid said.
“With the three formats of the game, it’s a challenge in the sense that some of them have to be prioritized,” Dravid said at Monday’s pre-match press conference. “Then you need to know which whiteball event you are playing and prioritize it. In this cycle, we have five games (three against Sri Lanka, two against New Zealand), three against Australia, One Asian Cup match has already been completed, three against the West Indies, three against Australia and perhaps one or two more, so we’re probably looking at 15 games. At this stage, we’ve narrowed down the group of players we want and we’re almost there. It’s just a matter of getting the players we’ve narrowed down to play more one-day cricket and prioritize that format. “
In line with that policy, Virat Kohli rested for his T20 leg of his tour this New Zealand, Dravid said, and there is no question mark on his place in the T20 line-up.
“Given the amount of cricket we play, we have to prioritize specific whiteball his tournaments,” says Dravid. “The priority after the last T20 World Cup was these six (ODI) games and Virat played them all. and play T20 cricket there, playing in Australia, so it’s a priority at a certain stage.”
India has suffered a string of injuries for many of its older players, and Dravid believes this must be embraced on a larger scale. “In the case of Bumrah and Jadeja, it’s not really workload management. They were injured and had to sit out this time, but hopefully they’ll be back whenever they come back.” Dravid said.
“You could call it the break we gave some people for workload management in the T20 series. Managing injuries and managing workload are two completely different things. Given the number of games played, we need to see short-term priorities and get big players into big tournaments.”
BCCI recently placed more burden on the NCA and IPL franchises to handle the player workload.
“If any of the big players are injured or if there’s any concern, of course the BCCI has a right to pull them out but if they are fit, we do release them for the IPL because it is a very big tournament for the BCCI and for us (the team) as well,” said Dravid, who previously headed the NCA. “Our preparation for the 2024 T20 World Cup—although it’s a little bit away and our focus is on the 50-overs World Cup—the IPL is a good tournament for us to assess the performances of players in that particular format.”
With the crucial Australia tour coming up (India need to win at least three Tests to make it to the World Championship final in June), there has been some talk about whether a few players should play in the ongoing Ranji Trophy. Dravid wants to play it by the ear.
“As far as possible, we would really like for the boys to play Ranji Trophy games as and when possible but it’s a tough one for us,” said Dravid. “The quarter-final is on the 31st and our build-up for the Border-Gavaskar Trophy is exactly at the same time. We probably won’t be able to release a (quarter-final) player for such a big tournament, but once the series starts there will be opportunities for someone not playing for our team and they will It is possible to advance to the semi-finals. Or if you want finals, I would definitely consider it. “