Rahul Dravid and Salman Butt. (Photo Source: Twitter)
India and Australia will be gearing up for the final match of the ongoing ODI series, which will also be the deciding game given the series is tied at 1-1. India clinched a five-wicket victory in the first game in Mumbai after chasing down a modest total on a tricky surface, but the visitors bounced back stronger to win the second game by a margin of 10 wickets in Visakhapatnam.
Thus, the upcoming clash will be important for both sides as they aim to clinch the series. The entire series was crucial for the teams as they gear up for the all-important ODI World Cup which is scheduled to be played later this year in India. Rahul Dravid, the head coach of Team India, discussed in-depth about the team’s World Cup preparations after the crushing loss in the second ODI.
Salman Butt, a former Pakistani captain, found Dravid’s comments puzzling. Butt, who frequently faced Dravid during his playing career, claimed that India had just suffered a 10-wicket setback and that the head coach should focus on winning the series rather than experimenting with “various combinations.”
“Rahul Dravid said that they will keep trying different combinations. Pehle series toh jeeto! Badalna toh irrelevant hai (First win the series! Changing combinations is irrelevant). We’ve to see how you solve your batting concerns first. All this talk about team combinations… this is were the confusion starts. How much do you want to change?” Butt said on his official YouTube channel.
“At this moment, all the conversations should be around the third ODI and how to win it. If someone asks a different question, you can say that it has got nothing to do with the match. He has talked a lot about combinations, this shouldn’t be so frequent,” Butt added.
The World Cup is scheduled to take place in October-November of this year, and according to Dravid, the team management has already decided on 17–18 players who would feature in the marquee event. The head coach, however, also emphasized the necessity of trying out different playing combinations.
“We have, to a large extent (achieved our goals in nine home ODIs). We have got a lot more clarity at the end of these nine games irrespective of what happens tomorrow. We need to keep building on that clarity. For us, it is now the different playing XI combinations and just ensuring that we play different combinations at times just to ensure that we are able to do that in the World Cup and we are not surprised by anything in the World Cup,” Dravid had said.
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