Asia Cup 2022: From now on in leading into the World Cup, we want to be playing our best squad as and when possible – Rahul Dravid

India’s head coach Rahul Dravid has revealed that they will try to play their best squad in the remaining matches of the Asia Cup and also all the matches leading up to the T20 World Cup. It has been noticed that India has been experimenting a lot with their playing combination in the recent past but Dravid revealed that there isn’t going to be any workload management before the T20I showpiece.

India has given ample opportunities to young players in the recent past and they have been able to get the best out of them. However, they would want to back their main players before the T20 World Cup in order to play the best possible playing XI, so that they don’t leave any stone unturned in their preparation.

“Unless there’s an injury or a niggle, or someone needs to be kept out, we’ve always come here wanting to play our best possible squad or the best possible XI that we can select,” Dravid said ahead of India vs Pakistan match.

“The next four games as well, depending on who is available, we will be looking to play our best side,” he further added.

“There’s not going to be any workload management over the next three or four days, unless of course it’s forced upon us – for example, [Ravindra] Jadeja. Other than that, no. We’re looking to play every single game trying to win this tournament and do the best we can. We’ll have time after that to manage the workloads. From now on in leading into the World Cup, we want to be playing out best squad as and when possible,” he said.

Meanwhile, India had given the nod to Dinesh Karthik ahead of Rishabh Pant in the Group stage match against Pakistan. Dravid revealed that they will decide the final XI depending on the conditions and the opposition.

“Again, we play the situation, we play the conditions, we play the opposition – what we feel on the day,’ he said. “There’s no such thing as a first-choice playing XI. Or that this is the first XI and we play the same for every single game and every single condition. That will change according to the situation,” the former Indian captain said.

“On that day, against Pakistan, we felt that Dinesh was the right choice. Like I said earlier, it’s always going to be difficult to leave out anyone. We play Rishabh and leave out DK and a lot of people are going to be upset with that. We can’t rely on that and, honestly, we don’t pay much attention to that,” he concluded.