Cautious India devised T20 WC blueprint in Feb

Coach Dravid, Captain Rohit. Identified Player Pool With. Like-For-Like Backups & Assigned. Series To Each Cricketer.

- Arani.Basu

Head coach Rahul Dravid had a long, intense chat with Virat Kohli during India’s practice session on Friday evening. An hour earlier, Ravindra Jadeja had been ruled out of the remainder of the Asia Cup due to a recurring knee injury. Dravid has been always meticulous in his planning. He doesn’t like leaving anything to chance.

In a larger context, Jadeja’s departure from the Asia Cup may be seen as a jolt to India’s preparation for the upcoming T20 World Cup. But Dravid and captain Rohit Sharma had already prepared a blueprint for the pool of players in February.

The frequent rotation of players in the past six months may seem jarring to a lot of people but most of it was pre-planned. “The captain and coach had sat down with the strength and conditioning coach and the physios in February. They had marked the entire year’s schedule. Rohit and Dravid had given them a pool of players.

The support staff was told to ensure those players are available and in the best shape for the T20 World Cup. Thus, each series was marked for the players to play in,” a source told TOI.