Team India and the Number 4 conundrum and experimentation continue. But Indian Cricket team head coach Rahul Dravid claimed that the Men in Blue had their designated players but all three (Shreyas Iyer, KL Rahul & Rishabh Pant) unfortunately got injured within a span of 3 months. Ahead of the start of the Asia Cup 2023, Rahul Dravid addressed the media where he went on to pour out his thoughts about the Indian batting lineup.
The Indian cricket team is ready to fly off to Sri Lanka for the Asia Cup 2023. But the injury concerns continue to haunt the Men in Blue. Speaking to the media on Tuesday, Rahul Dravid said that KL Rahul will miss both the group stage matches against Pakistan and Nepal. While KL will continue to recover at the NCA, a decision on his travel will be undertaken on 4th September.
India’s Number 4 Conundrum
India has been missing the likes of KL Rahul, Shreyas Iyer, and Rishabh Pant for quite some time. All three middle-order batters were injured and had to subsequently go under the knife. And therefore to fill up the void left behind, India conducted quite a few experiments to try out the viable options.
Suryakumar Yadav was tried at the Number 4 spot but he despite being the ICC Number 1 T20I batter, has failed consistently in ODIs. For the returning public, Pant is out for another couple of months and is expected to be back next year.
“To be honest, this word ‘experimentation’ gets thrown around a lot without actually being thought through. It’s not like we’re experimenting for the sake of experimenting. There are specific reasons why you have to do that. For example, No.4 and No.5 gets discussed a lot and it gives an impression that we don’t have clarity on who is going to be there,” said Dravid when asked about the possibilities of doing so in the upcoming Asia Cup, and added, “But to be honest, I could have told you 18 or 19 months ago who were the two or three candidates that we were looking at for No.4 or 5 slot. It was always going to be between Shreyas [Iyer], KL [Rahul] and Rishabh [Pant].
KL Rahul ruled out of India vs Pakistan, Nepal Asia Cup 2023 clashes
Shreyas Iyer has recovered from his back stress fracture and is now 100% fit to get back into the squad. He is primed to be the designated Number 4 batter for the Men in Blue.
“If you look back at the teams that we picked 18 months ago, there were no doubts in our minds. It is unfortunate that all three ended up with injuries in a space of two months. What are the odds of that happening? Nobody could calculate that, especially with the limited number of games we were having in one-day cricket. We were also focussing on the T20 World Cup and World Test Championship. We were trying to balance that out, trying to give enough game-time to people. And all three of the guys pushing for that spot got injured in a space of three months.
“And not small injuries, all three of them had serious injuries. All three of them had to go under the knife and have operations. And when that happens, you have to react to that. You put other people in those positions and see who can do it, just in case come a World Cup or come a big event, we are ready,” he reasoned. “So for us, at this point, it’s just about giving game time to other people and ensuring that we give them enough opportunities to play the roles that they are going to play at in the tournament. That’s always been the endeavour,” Dravid concluded.
India begins their Asia Cup 2023 campaign against Pakistan on 2nd September.
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