With limited preparation time for T20 World Cup, India head coach Dravid wants team to adapt

With the IPL set to begin on March 22 and finish by the third week of May, there would hardly be any time for India to get into the groove for the T20 World Cup.

FILE PHOTO - India head coach Rahul Dravid during a practice session.  | Photo Credit: PTI

The three-match series against Afghanistan, beginning here on Thursday, will be India’s last series in the shortest format before the T20 World Cup in June.

The players and the team management understand that it’s perhaps not a perfect build-up to yet another ICC tournament. But then, with a busy home season - a five-match Test series against England, followed by the Indian Premier League - they need to ‘adapt and be flexible’.

Head coach Rahul Dravid, too, is of a similar opinion. Ever since taking over as the head coach in November 2021, the team has featured in three ICC events under him, and every time, there has been sufficient preparation time. “This T20 World Cup is slightly different, in the sense that there isn’t a lot of time to prepare for it. We have to rely on the cricket that we have and also a bit on the IPL,” Dravid said.

“The boys will be playing T20 cricket here and in the IPL. We might not get many opportunities to play together, so we will have to work around that. You just have to adapt and be flexible. We had good preparation leading into the ODI World Cup and also for the T20 World Cup 2022. This time, we probably won’t have that and we have to adapt to that and go with it…”

Over the last few years, India opted for horses for courses policy, according to the format of the event. “At various stages over the last couple of years, we have had to prioritise certain formats, certain tournaments, simply because of the amount of cricket being played and in terms of managing the players, it’s impossible to make all players play all the time. So, we had to prioritise what’s important. Even in this series, people like Siraj, Jadeja and Bumrah have missed out, keeping in mind the five-Test matches,” Dravid said. “So, you are always playing the juggling act over the last couple of years…”

With the IPL set to begin on March 22 and finish by the third week of May, there would hardly be any time for India to get into the groove for the T20 World Cup. And, keeping the different conditions in mind in the USA and the West Indies, it would be a daunting task for sure.

Only time will tell whether the seniors and team management will be able to come up with a foolproof plan in a bid to end the team’s decade-long trophy drought in ICC events.