Before the Asia Cup, Rahul Dravid puts an end to the “Experimentation” debate
KL Rahul would not be allowed to participate in the Group A games for the Men in Blue, according to Team India head coach Rahul Dravid, who was present at a news conference before to the Asia Cup 2023. Rahul will thus be absent from both the match against Nepal and India’s inaugural Asia Cup match against Pakistan on September 2. For the Super 4 stage, the wicketkeeper batter is probably going to be totally healthy.
Rahul Dravid finally spoke out about the ‘experimentation’ at the number 4 and number 5 batting spots, therefore Iyer is probably going to play in the first two games. The number 4 position has been a weak point since the 2019 ODI World Cup, and the same issue reappeared when Rahul and Iyer both had injuries in the months before to the ICC World Cup 2023 in October and November.
Additionally, Rishabh Pant was involved in a vehicle accident last year, excluding him from the ODI World Cup outright. There has been a lot of chopping and shifting recently due to the absence of three important players in the middle order.
There have been calls to include Tilak Varma, who has made the India’s Asia Cup squad but has yet to play in an ODI. Sanju Samson, Suryakumar Yadav, and Ishan Kishan have all been given the opportunity to try out but have not been able to secure their spots in the ODI team.
In the meanwhile, Dravid has put an end to the experimental argument by claiming that only Rahul, Rishabh, and Shreyas qualified for the positions of number 5 and number 4, although the Indian had to make several adjustments as a result of the trio’s absence.
Rahul Dravid said in a press conference on Tuesday, August 29, “People talk a lot about experimentation, but even before 18–20 months, I could have told who were the candidates for the number 4 & 5 – it was always between KL (Rahul), (Rishabh) Pant & (Shreyas) Iyer, but unfortunately all got injured together.”
It is unclear where Ishan will bat since Rohit Sharma, Shubman Gill, and Virat Kohli are expected to occupy the top 3 batting spots in the first few games, while Kishan is likely to keep his spot behind the wickets.
