India head coach Ravi Shastri said the One-Day Internationals in Australia will see an Indian team that is close to the one that will head to the World Cup in England next year, confirming that there will be no more chopping and changing.
Kohli and the Indian team management have tried various team combinations in ODIs this year in their hunt for the most efficient squad for the World Cup. However, Shastri said the squad India picks for the Australia ODIs will be close to the one that goes to the UK in May.
“The [Australia] Test series is obviously important because this is the last [big] series before the World Cup, so the focus will be on that,” Shastri said during a press conference in Mumbai on Thursday ahead of the Indian team’s departure for Australia.
“As far as the ODIs are concerned, we’ll play close a 15-member squad that will go to the World Cup. Chopping and changing is over now. Rest period is over.”
He added, “Now is the time to really focus, play as a unit, and then hopefully not have too many injuries. There are not too many games left now, the eight games in Australia and New Zealand will be a good test and five against Australia at home so we’ll try and play the best teams in all those games.”
Team India will play three Twenty20 Internationals, four Tests and three ODIs on their tour of Australia. The ODIs will start in January.
Asked whether the team has progressed the way he wanted before the overseas leg began early this year, Shastri insisted the performances have gone up a notch.
“I see a lot of progress across all formats. And I say that in spite of the scoreline in England. When you look at actual performances across all three formats in conditions that are foreign to us, I am more than happy,” the 56-year-old said.
“It’s still a learning process. If we learn from the mistakes we made in South Africa and in England, I think it will stand us in good stead in Australia.”
When posed the same question, India captain Virat Kohli was a bit more critical in his judgement, saying there is still room for improvement.
“Well, I personally feel that we definitely have made decent progress but there is still a lot of room for improvement. The thing is as a group we realise what we need to work on. So it’s up to individuals to take responsibility and understand expectations from a team culture or goals point of view. Individuals need to work on those things,” Kohli said.
According to Kohli, the performances in England were dissected and it’s up to the team now to rectify areas of concern.
“There are lot of things we sat down and discussed after England tour as to what went wrong. We honestly felt that there was not much that went wrong but what did go wrong was in the extremes. We played good cricket but mistakes were in the extreme.” he said.
“We need to strike a balance of when the situation is against us how to control it better and how to find a way out of it rather than getting out of it immediately. Those are little things that we need to work on. The same goes for me as well, individually. In Test cricket we really need to tighten things up,” he added.