Sports

Before the World Cup, Rahul Dravid announced major changes for Team India.

News On Time Desk 15 August 2023

Delhi: Under the captaincy of Hardik Pandya, India lost 2-3 to the West Indies in the T20 series. In the decider, the Caribbean team kept the pressure on India from the very beginning and eventually won the match by eight wickets. After losing the series, difficulties started for the Indian team. This is a lesson for India ahead of the T20 World Cup to be jointly hosted by West Indies and America in June 2024. For this, head coach Rahul Dravid has talked about major changes in the team before the World Cup. Dravid said that Windies' number 11 Alzarri Joseph can also hit big shots, but our team is missing it.

Rahul Dravid said that getting good batsmen in the lower order is a big challenge for us. Now attention has to be paid to this, because we have to play the T20 World Cup within 10 months. With this kind of preparation, we cannot enter the World Cup. We need players till number-8 and number-9 who can play big shots. That's why the bowlers will have to bat a little better as well. Coach Rahul Dravid further added that the lower order players should be capable of hitting fours and sixes. Now we have to pay more attention to such players, who can bat along with bowling. He said that the name of Shivam Dubey is coming in my mind. Venkatesh Iyer and Washington Sundar are also such players. We need to develop players like him.

Rahul Dravid said about the T20 series against West Indies that Tilak Verma, Yashasvi Jaiswal and Mukesh Kumar have impressed him a lot. While Tilak Verma bats well in the middle order, Mukesh has impressed in the death overs. He said that some seniors were given break keeping in mind the Asia Cup and ODI World Cup. Young players have got a chance to learn a lot from this series.