Cautious Team India devised T20 World Cup blueprint in February

Coach Dravid, captain Rohit identified player pool with like-for-like backups and assigned series to each cricketerDUBAI: 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 theT20 World Cup. Thus, each series was marked for the players to play in," a source told TOI. While all the attention was on India's probable top 15 players, the team management was actually working towards like-for-like options for every player. In effect, the team management had been looking at about 30 players. The team management has stood firm with its plans.

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India all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja was on Friday ruled out of the remainder of the Asia Cup due to a knee injury and Axar Patel will replace him in the squad. Jadeja had made